MOLAD: Breaking Light
by The Light's Refrain
Summary: Determined to eradicate the Master of Darkness, their alliance seems unshakeable. But cracks soon begin to form and spread as the truth about their opponent is slowly uncovered. Sequel to MOLAD: Destiny's Edge.
1. Prologue: Shattered

_Hi! Welcome to MOLAD: Breaking Light. This story follows MOLAD: Destiny's Edge. You don't have to read that story to understand what's going on, but it would help. As long as I get reviews, I'll post chapters since I finished this story about half a year ago. _

_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Digi…I mean, Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I'd use the Keyblade to take care all those Heartless that reside in my school _

**Phase 1: To Shatter**

Silence enveloped the entire world of Hollow Bastion. Not a Heartless was in sight, which was strange in a place so seeped in darkness. Instead, black and white feathers drenched in crimson were scattered on the ground, some drifting wherever the wind took them, others still falling down from above like a swarm of petals falling from their mother tree.

Everything around had the taint of blood, even the vast amount of water climbing the cliff walls.

This was the sight Donald and Leon arrived to at the Rising Falls.

"What the hell happened here!" Leon exclaimed. Though in truth he already had a pretty good idea. 

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! Riku fought with The Master of Darkness, that's what happened!" Donald yelled, stating the obvious.

Leon sighed, not in the mood to argue with the loudmouthed waterfowl. "C'mon, let's go find Riku and make sure he's still alive." And with that they leapt up through the rubble to reach the platform that would take them to the castle. Amazingly, it still worked, if a bit roughly.

When they arrived at the main entrance, they saw the damage was far more extensive here than down below. Craters littered the landscape like confetti, with plenty of broken pipes and crumbling walls as well. And, of course, more blood-stained feathers.

Leon and Donald did not pause for long as they rushed through the wreckage to find The Master of Light alive, or The Master of Darkness dead, or the other not so pleasant vice-versa.

"I can't believe him!" Donald complained as he struggled through the rubble. 'I thought we had a deal; if The Master of Darkness shows up, then let us know about it!"

Leon examined the destruction around them. "He must've thought it was too dangerous for us. This battle was far fiercer than I ever expected it to be, even for such an epic confrontation as this. It's dumb luck that this place wasn't turned into space dust."

"YOU'RE JUST MAKING EXCUSES!" Donald screamed, jumping up and down.

"This isn't the time for a temper tantrum! We have to find Riku!" Leon snapped. 'Now c'mon let's go!"

-------

When they were about at The Great Crest, something struck Donald.

"QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WHAT ABOUT SORA!" he shouted. "He went with Riku too! But if The Master of Darkness came here then-"

Leon stopped dead in his tracks. That's right; Sora had gone with Riku in search of the Master of Darkness. If Sora had tried to fight the commander of the dark then maybe...maybe that was why Riku hadn't called the rest of them. Sora was by far the best warrior next to Riku, so if he had been struck down...

Donald was far ahead of Leon by the time he came to his senses. He wasted no time catching up to him, his feet stepping over pools of dried blood and discarded down.

_At the church chapel..._

No much was left of the walls that once surrounded it. The outside wall had been completely demolished, revealing all the scarred insides...and Riku.

Riku!" Leon and Donald exclaimed at the same time, rushing over towards the figure crumpled on the floor.

Riku's wings had vanished long ago, returning Riku to his normal form. His clothes clung to him in bloodied tatters, bruises and cuts all over his body. He didn't stir as the others ran over to him.

Leon checked his pulse. He let out a sigh of relief. "He's still alive," he reassured Donald. "But he's in bad shape. I'm going to try to heal some of his wounds so we can move him to the Gummi Ship. You go find Sora." 

Donald gave him a firm nod and rushed through what remained of the tower's top to see if he could locate Sora.

Leon brought out a bottle filled with a green liquid. He pulled out the cork, then let the substance ooze out of the bottle and pour over the worst wounds. The ooze began to glow and the injury began to seal itself a bit. He pulled out some more bottles to aid the process.

Donald darted up the remains of the palace with nothing short of supersonic speed. He glanced right and left, but still no sign of Sora, the one he was supposed to protect. 

Finally he arrived in the chamber right before the Keyhole of Hollow Bastion. Much like rest of the castle, various craters and pieces of broken ceiling were scattered throughout the room, and all but one torch had been either knocked over, burning the floor beneath it, or annihilated altogether. Unlike the other rooms, however, this one contained none other than the Keyblade Master, lying unconscious on the floor in just as bad shape as Riku.

"Sora! I found him!" Donald yelled to the downstairs area. He rushed over to him, raising his magic rod into the dusty air. "HEAL! HEAL HEAL HEAL!"

A pale green mist drifted out of the staff's end, surrounding Sora and glowing lightly as it tried to treat his wounds. They were sealed only slightly, but it was enough to carry him back to consciousness.

"Unnnnnnnngh..." Riku moaned as he fluttered his eyes. "Wha...?"

"Have a nice nap?" Leon asked.

"Huh? What..." Riku began to speak.

Then it all came flooding back to him. The Keyblade Master, the secret, the battle.

"...So, I survived. That's a relief," he added with a small smile. "Where's Sora?" he asked, not really sure what the best answer would be.

"Donald found him higher up," Leon explained. "He's working on healing him right now. Don't worry, he'll be fine."

Riku managed to sit up. The potions helped with his wounds, but not his fatigue. He looked down away from Leon.

'So that Master of Darkness got you by surprise, huh?" Leon questioned.

"Yeah...you could say that..." Riku replied, continuing to stare at the floor.

_I know I should tell them. But..._

"Sora?" Donald asked.

The Keyblade couldn't even bear to speak to his guardian. Or, he should say, his former guardian...

"Sora!" Donald yelled, frustrated at odd behavior. 'I go to all this trouble to find you and heal you, and THIS is the thanks I get! QUAQUAQUAQUAQUAQUAQUAQUA!" Donald left up and down in a fit. 

And the foul-tempered waterfowl went on and on...Sora couldn't help but look up and smile, if sadly. "Donald..."

"What!" Donald snapped. 

'We...We had promised each other to always be friends..." Sora began

"Huh?" Donald paused, puzzled. "Of course!"

Sora chuckled a little. "Well...but I suppose that promise we made wasn't really taking this into account..."

Dark sparks flew around Sora as the darkness swirled around him and began to attach to his back, forming bird wings the color of onyx...

"WHA-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!" Donald screamed in shock. "QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Leon's and Riku's head shot straight up to where they heard the scream. 

"Donald!" they both shouted at the same moment. 

_He wouldn't...There's no way..._

"Riku! Stay down here! I'm going up there to check it out!" Leon ordered as he rushed to the scene.

It wasn't long until Leon arrived and saw just what the problem was.

Sora floated before them, not as The Keyblade Master, but as The Master of Darkness.

His wings were flickering, threatening to give out at any second.

Leon didn't say anything. There was nothing to say, as the obvious didn't need to be stated.

Donald was backed up against the wall, or what was left of it, with a petrified look on his face. "It-it can't be! You traitor!" With an enraged scream he fired a Blizzaga spell straight at him.

The spell struck him right in the chest and knocked him back to the ground, the wings fading away. He had a sorrowful look in his eyes. "I...didn't think this counted..." Sora spoke with a sad smile. A dark mist surrounded him like a blanket and shot off high into the sky, leaving a faint trail of dark smoke behind. 

Utter silence enveloped Hollow Bastion once more. Leon turned around to go back down to where Riku was.

"I see," Leon began, "So this is why he didn't call us...C'mon, Donald, let's get Riku out of here before anything else happens."

_Well, hope you like. There are about 17 chapters for this story, I believe, but I'll probably clump some of those chapters together when I post them here. _

_Cya!_


	2. The Threads Fray

_Well…not feeling like chatting much today, so…let's get to the point, shall we?_

_Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, the second KH would already be here _

**Phase 1: Widening Crevices**

It hadn't been long since Riku arrived back at Traverse Town. He was getting ready to enter the hotel to get some rest when he heard happy shouts nearby. He spun around to see three familiar faces running towards him. It was none other than Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka.

"'Ey man! Wha'cha doing?" Wakka yelled over to him.

"How come you guys are here?" Riku asked tiredly.

"Why, to pay you a visit of course!" Tidus replied cheerfully. "Don't get to see you that much, you know, so we decided to come visit!"

"You shouldn't have," Riku answered, half glad to see them, but at the same time...

"Aw, cheer up!" Selphie said smiling, hugging him.

While she was busy hugging Riku, Tidus snuck up behind Selphie and pushed her, sending both of Selphie and Riku crashing down onto the pavement. 

Selphie got up and dusted herself off. 'Tidus!"

"What?' he asked, putting on a big innocent smile.

Wakka's obvious effort to not burst out laughing betrayed him though, and Selphie charged at Tidus.

"WAH!" Tidus cried out as he sprinted as fast as he could from the enraged Selphie.

"I'm gonna get you for this!" she shouted, running at full steam.

"Not if you don't catch me!" Tidus yelled back.

As Wakka watched the hunt commence, he noticed Riku was still on the ground. While he was sitting up, it seemed the slightest breeze might knock him back down again. "You 'kay?" he asked.

"Yeah...' Riku answered with a smile. 'Been a long day, that's all."

'' 'Ey, Where's Sora anyway?' Wakka added.

Riku stayed quiet for a moment, then just said, "Oh, somewhere."

He wasn't sure how he was going to tell Aerith the news, much less Wakka, so for now that was all he needed to know. He would never believe the truth anyway.

They began laughing when the chase concluded with Selphie tackling Tidus to the ground, then complaining about how her very best skirt was now all dirty.

"Riku!" a very familiar voice called out.

Riku was immediately silent as Kairi ran over to greet him.

Hey, Kairi," Riku greeted her, with a slight smile on his face.

"So how are you?" she asked cheerfully, leaning over him with her hands behind her back.

"Oh, alright, I guess..." Riku answered.

Kairi easily picked up on his gloominess. "What's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing," Riku replied quickly, looking away. "Just a bit sleepy."

Kairi let her annoyed curiosity leak out on her face. "C'mon, Riku, you can tell me."

"Yeah, tell us man," Wakka chimed in.

Kairi gave him an irritated glare.

"Heheheh...or not," Wakka replied uneasily. "I'll just leave you two alone while I'll...go find Tidus and Selphie." With that he rushed off in another direction.

When Wakka was completely out of sight, Kairi turned sat down next to Riku. "Now, do you wanna tell me what's wrong?" she asked with a smile.

"No," was Riku's cold reply.

"Oh," Kairi mumbled. "Why not?"

"Look! I just don't, okay!" he snapped, stomping off to the hotel. "Just leave me alone!"

Kairi was shocked by the sudden outburst and could only quietly murmur "Riku...?"

Kairi sulked off to find out where Wakka and the others had run off to. She wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for him or to go off on him next time she laid eyes on him. Oh well, Riku would tell her eventually.

Suddenly there was a sound of something exploding and familiar screams nearby.

Tidus, Selphie and Wakka darted towards Kairi in a panic as fireballs charred a nearby wall. In fact, they were so spooked that one of them slammed into Kairi, which ended up causing a four-person pile-up.

"What happened!" Kairi asked worriedly.

"Waaaaah! What's with Donald today?" Tidus whined. "We went five feet near him and he went berserk and started shooting fireballs at us!"

"What'd you do?" Kairi questioned flatly.

"I didn't do nothing!" Tidus answered.

"It's true, mahn," Wakka chimed in. "I was there too."

"Yeah, for once it wasn't his fault, really!" Selphie agreed.

Seeing that they all seemed to share the same opinion, Kairi decided that it was more likely than not that they were telling the truth.

"What was he doing?" she asked.

"Well, nothing really," Tidus replied. "He was just sitting in the middle of the road clutching his magic wand, so I went over to see what was wrong and he went off on me and shot a bunch of fireballs.

"Huh, weird..." Kairi mumbled. That sounded oddly violent, even for Donald. It reminded her of something else strange earlier...

'You know, I ran into Leon earlier," she began "He wouldn't even talk to me."

"What's so different about that?" Selphie asked.

"Well, he seemed so depressed..." Kairi replied.

'He's ALWAYS depressed," Tidus responded casually.

"But this time he seemed...more depressed, I guess," Kairi tried to explain.

'Meh, I wouldn't worreh about it, ya," Wakka reassured. 'That Master of Darkness got them all stressed out, ya."

'Yeah, I guess you're right," Kairi stated with a smile. But she just couldn't shake the feeling that something about this was very, very wrong. But she didn't let it show. After all, she had no proof. She was probably just her getting worked up over nothing...even if her conscience said otherwise.

**Phase 2: Dark Light or White Darkness?**

Yuffie strolled along the town, looking for the perfect thing to steal. Swords? Nah. Jewelry? Not right now. Some Gummi parts from Cid? No, she did that a couple of days ago.

Then she spotted it. A genuine super-rare most wanted Ruby infused with Mythril that was bigger than her head. It was being displayed in a petty store's front window, bathing all who laid eyes upon it in its most magnificent glory.

Just the thing to take. Who cared if the sale of that precious item was the only thing that could save the store from going under? She wanted it, and she wanted it NOW.

She walked casually into the store, whistling all innocent-like. She pretended to look at some common knives that could be obtained anywhere, but what she was really doing was planting a smoke bomb that would go off in about thirty seconds. She began to stroll over the door as if to leave.

Soon thirty seconds was up and the store was choked with thick purple smoke. During all this chaos she darted for the gem, snatched it away from its pedestal, and rushed out of the vapor and into a nearby alley before anyone there even knew what was happening.

She sat down and hugged her prize in joy. 'I can make at least 1,000,000 munny with this baby." She giggled in glee.

"Are you nuts?" a voice growled.

Yuffie sprang back up and looked around frantically for Leon.

"Look, I'm not just gonna turn my back on him like this!" another familiar voice snapped.

She let out a sigh of relief. He was talking to Donald, not her.

But what were they talking about, she wondered? Out of sheer curiosity she stayed and listened.

"He wouldn't been chosen as the Keyblade Master if he was EVIL!" Donald yelled at him.

"But look at what else destiny chose him for," Leon replied. "We don't have a choice in this matter. We must destroy him."

Hold on. 

...What?

Sora, that naive kid who such a goody-two shoes that it's sickening and saved the whole universe from Ansem...evil? And Leon says that he wants to kill him!

This was turning out to be an interesting conversation...

"NOOOOOOOOOOO! I WON'T ALLOW IT!" Donald screamed, thrusting his magic wand out in front of him. "The king told me to protect the Keyblade Master Sora, and that's what I'm gonna do!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean it to go this far," Leon hissed. "Besides, we don't need him. We can use Riku to seal the keyholes."

"ARE YOU GONNA BELIEVE IT JUST LIKE THAT!" Donald shouted. "YOU WOULD KILL HIM WITHOUT EVER THINKING THAT IT MIGHT BE A SET-UP!"

"I know what I saw," Leon barked. "And I'm sure Riku is not fooled easily."

"LOOK SOMETHING ABOUT THIS JUST ISN'T RIGHT!" Donald screeched. "AND I WON'T LET ANYONE DO ANYTHING TO HIM UNTIL I HAVE MORE PROOF!"

"What more proof do you need than what you saw back there?" Leon growled.

With a yell of rage, Donald summoned a fireball and sent it hurling towards Leon.

He dodged just in time. "So that's how you want to play?"

"IF YOU PLAN TO KILL SORA, YOU GOTTA GO THROUGH ME FIRST!" Donald announced.

Both took their battle stances.

Leon made the first move, dashing at Donald and planning to slice him in half. Donald jumped out of the way and fired a Thundaga spell at him from up above. It was a direct hit and caused Leon to stagger, but only for a little bit. He charged at him again, this time cutting his cap clean in two and barely missing the duck.

Donald summoned a volley of fireballs at him. None struck Leon, and were left to eradicate barrels lying in the way and for Yuffie to dodge frantically in order not to be roasted.

Leon's sword began to glow a bluish white, then almost doubled in size. With this transformed sword he shot out several energy blasts at Donald, one of which rammed Donald into the alley wall.

Yuffie cowered behind a stack of boxes. This was one fight she wanted no business in, and not just because she was carrying a jewel that could be easily fractured either.

"Firega!' Donald yelled, sending a huge sphere of flame Leon's way. Leon dodged it, and it flew out of the alley and exploded into a nearby wall, making a nice huge crater in it and sending whatever pedestrians that happened to be nearby into a panic.

Leon leapt over Donald and attempted to stab him from behind, but was unsuccessful. Then before Donald could do anything else, he fired a volley of blasts at Donald. It was a direct hit that sent Donald soaring into the street, landing flat on his back.

He quickly got up and performed a Blizzaga spell, sending a swarm of ice Leon's way. Leon managed to evade it and leapt out of the alley, smacking Donald with the flat side of the blade.

Donald quickly countered with more Thundaga spells. Some were able to zap Leon, while some missed their mark and zapped something else, like a lamppost or a wayward mutt.

"Stop this at once!" a voice commanded.

They paused to look at Aerith, who seemed quite ticked at the moment. "What is the meaning of this?"

Both remained dead silent, glared at each other, and walked in opposite directions without saying a word.

"Hey wait!" Aerith exclaimed, but her voice was heard by neither of them. Looking both worried and annoyed at the same time, she turned around and walked away as well, not in the mood to deal with them right now.

Yuffie, after hiding away her treasure in one of her secret little cubbyholes to admire later, decided to go follow Leon to wherever he was going. She slinked around in the shadows just behind, careful to make sure she gave birth to no sound as she moved. Leon took his time, his GunBlade perched on his shoulder, muttering something angrily to himself as he traveled across the cement and slashing any Heartless that were foolish enough to dare pop up in his path. It wasn't long until Yuffie could tell where he wanted to go: it seemed that he planned to go sulk in his favorite hidden cave. 

As he strolled into the cave's mouth, Yuffie decided it was time for her to make her grand appearance. She leapt down right in front of Leon, put on a big smile, and said 'HIYA! How're ya doing?"

'Buzz off,' Leon growled. 'I really ain't in the mood to deal with you right now."

"Oh allright..." Yuffie replied, looking down at the ground and beginning to move. But almost instantly she perked up. 'But ya gotta tell me what going on first!" 

"You don't want to know...' Leon answered. "Now move."

'Not until you tell me!" Yuffie responded in a teasing matter, with a big smile on her face.

"Trust me, you'll find out all too soon," Leon hissed.

'Awwww c'mon, tell me," she crooned. "If I'm gonna find out about it soon anyway, you might as well tell me now."

"I already told you, no!" Leon snapped, pushing her out of the way. 

"Hey!" Yuffie protested. "Can you at least give me a hint or something?"

"I told you-" he growled.

"Is this about the Master of Darkness?' she guessed.

Leon stopped. "I can tell you one thing." He eyed Yuffie over his shoulder. "This Master of Darkness is going to tear this alliance apart."

He was able to proceed into the cave without any more interruptions.

_Heh, things are beginning to heat up in the group, and it's only going to get hotter. Hope you like. _

_Cya!_


	3. Wounds of Past and Present

_Me again, with the next chapter. Please note: I know Donald doesn't really sound like Donald in the first part, but the point is to mention a little something that happened in the game, and just why Donald feels the way he does. Considering the event I'm talking of, I could only use Donald or Goofy, and not only is Goofy completely inappropriate for this, but I find it hard to write as Goofy. In short: Donald is capable of angst, and Goofy's isn't, not really, so I'm using Donald. There!_

_Well, hope you like!_

_Disclaimer: Well, if I owned all of Kingdom Hearts, I'd rule the whole world, wouldn't I? _

**Phase 3: Searing Scars**

Donald stomped off into an alley. He couldn't believe that Leon! Not only did he accept that Sora seemed to be The Master of Darkness, but he actually wanted to KILL him. But he knew better. You just don't go off killing Keyblade Masters just because they just might be The Master of Darkness...though that was pretty convincing back in Hollow Bastion...but he knew it couldn't be him. That had to be some kind of trick by the real Master of Darkness to try to bait them into striking down Sora so one of the major obstacles to world eradication would be removed. That had to be it!

Donald plopped down against the wall, clutching his magic wand tight. There was no way he'd betray Sora...no way, not like last time...

The look he gave him still haunted him, of when he and Goofy went to join Riku. They believed they should go with Riku because he was in fact the true Keyblade Master. Who cared if Riku was acting all evil and had been beating on Beast? He was able to take the Keyblade away from Sora. That was proof enough that he was the one to protect, not Sora, right?

Of course they soon realized that Riku wasn't the one to guard, and they returned to Sora a bit later, along with the Keyblade. But the damage had already been done...

There seemed to be no resentment at first. Right then he was just glad to have him and Goofy be his allies again. And the chaos that followed soon after didn't leave time to worry about grudges. It was only after that the effects began to show...

Once Sora had enough time to sort out what had happened, the extent of the wound they had inflicted on him became obvious. He drifted away from him and Goofy, barely even talking to him. Which he couldn't be blamed for, really. After all, they were the true backstabbers back there. Riku had done treason as well, but Sora never held a grudge against him since it wasn't of his true will, while they had abandoned him with hardly any encouragement at all.

His so-called loyal royals had left him when he no longer possessed the Keyblade, so if he couldn't trust them, the ones who had been with him the most during the journey, then who could he trust? Certainly not Aerith and her group, who only associated with him back there because he just happened to hold the Keyblade, it seemed. And what of the people he had met while traveling? Could he really trust them, or would they leave him like he and Goofy had? Unable to answer that, he shut himself off from the others.

The only ones that he felt he could truly confide in was his old friends: Kairi, Riku, Tidus, Selphie and Wakka. The only other one he felt especially comfortable being around was Beast. When they had left him to Hollow Bastion's cruelties without another thought, Beast had stayed and guarded him from the numerous Heartless, despite the fact that he wasn't really the true Keyblade Master, and he was still hurt from Riku's thrashing. Beast hadn't seen him as the Keyblade Master but as a friend, that had been proven to Sora.

But to those outside of that group, Sora turned his back on. His nature became accompanied by a cold edge whenever he was approached by either a stranger or an uncertain friend. Sora began to resent the Keyblade that he'd been blessed with, saying it only netted him false friends and trouble.

The worst thing about this was that it took all of them forever to find out just why he was acting this way. Even when they realized the cause it still took a long time for them to clean up this huge mess they'd made...and even then, the scar still haunted Sora from time to time...

But hold on. That could mean that if even one person turned on Sora and tried to kill him, he would most likely go down this dark spiral of untrustfulness even further, and quite possibly never recover...

That's why he, Donald Duck, would never let that happen, even if he did happen to be the true Master of Darkness...

**Phase 4: Of Gummi Blocks and Broken Keys**

Cid strolled into town, having just arrived on his superior Gummi Ship after gathering some Gummi Block ingredients while traveling. Ah, it felt nice to be back at good ol' Traverse Town after some of the utter chaos he had to deal with on other worlds. Not that this world was all peaceful and perfect but...

The first thing he noticed when he stepped into town was the odd air to it. Usually he'd see some of his friends chatting, or complaining, depending on what the topic was, for the entire world to know. They weren't stupid enough to talk about real secret stuff in detail here, but it was a good place to chill, this 1st District.

And yet he saw almost no one out, making the place unsettling quiet. He did see Aerith holding on to Cloud's arm as they ambled by. Ah, so Cloud has come back from training at last. It seemed his wings had grown a bit too, as they could no longer quite fit underneath that tattered cape of his. Well, it was really Vincent's, and now that it came to mind Vincent would want his cape back soon. After all, it had been a while since his usual clothes had been ripped and bloodied by a brutal fight with Sephiroth, so he should have at least one new outfit by now...

He decided to go have a quick chat with them, to see if anything interesting happened while he was gone. 'Hey there, lovebirds, how're ya doing?"

Aerith stopped clutching Cloud's arm and turned to face Cid. 'Oh hello, Cid. You're back already?'

"Already!" Cid exclaimed. "What you ya mean already! Didn't you miss me!" 

"Meh," Cloud replied. "Not too much." 

"Ha ha, very funny," Cid growled. "Anyway, so what'd I miss?"

"Oh, nothing much," Aerith replied. "'Cept..."

"Eh?"

"Well, right before you got here Leon and Donald were fighting each other, and I had to break it up before it went too far," Aerith explained. "Right in the middle of some pedestrians too."

"What were they all mad about?' Cid asked.

"I don't know," Aerith replied. "Both of them just fell silent when I asked and walked away."

"Huh," Cid responded, leaning against a brick wall. "Meh, it don't surprise me much. Put a foul-tempered duck that never shuts up with a moody guy who gets easily irritated and this is what you get."

Cloud chuckled a little. "Sounds about right."

Aerith still look concerned. "What were they fighting about though?"

Cloud shrugged. "Who knows. Probably something stupid."

She smiled. 'Yes, you're right. I shouldn't worry about it."

The happy couple strolled away. Not long after Yuffie came into view as she slowly made her way around the corner, seeming to have none of her usual peppy spirit.

"What's your problem?" Cid questioned. 

"Huh?" Yuffie looked up at him for a second. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all, heheheheheh..."

Cid screwed up his eyes. "You sure ain't acting like it's nothing." Then something popped into his head. "Did you steal the Gummi blocks I had stored in the shop again?"

"What?' she asked, acting truly surprised. "No, no. It's...stupid." Then she leapt out of sight, not seeming to be in the mood to talk right then.

"Dammit, I bet she did," Cid muttered, hurrying to his Gummi Shop.

He rushed up to the secret stock room he had created upstairs recently. They spilled all the Gummi blocks out and checked out every single one, making sure all of them were there by using a list of Gummi blocks that were supposed to be present.

And sure enough...

"Dammit! She took all my damn Protega and Firega Cannon blocks!" he growled. He thought that Yuffie knew nothing of this stash of his, but then again, this is Yuffie he was talking about.

He busted out the door and charged down the District, his enraged eyes searching all directions for his prey. "When I get my hands on that bitch..."

He galloped down 2nd District, which he expanded quite a bit since the days of Ansem. Heartless still ran amuck the universe, so people still wound up here and settling here as their new home. As a result, all the districts, particularly 2nd District, had been transformed into a mess of alleys, making it mazelike in nature. Ah, how he missed the days when he could actually find his way around town...

He thought he glimpsed her shadow bouncing from roof to roof to his west, so he rushed in that direction, meeting with an ended alley. But here he found not a mischievous ninja, but a Keyblade Master.

Sora!" Cid exclaimed.

He didn't just say his name because he was surprised to see him sitting in this alley. It was also because of the fact that his clothes were torn and bloodstained, and Sora himself possessed many injuries. The other detail about him seeming to be out like a light encouraged it too.

Sora opened his eyes and lifted his head up a little.

"What happened, kid!" Cid questioned.

Sora seemed to recognize him, but instead of being glad, or at least okay, about seeing him, he backed up against the wall. A fearful look encompassed his eye.

"What happened?" Cid repeated, walking over towards him.

This didn't help in calming Sora. If anything, it frightened him even more. He shut his eyes tight and vanished into the air before Cid could question him further.

"Eh?" Cid murmured, confused. Why did he run away? And where'd he learn to teleport, for that matter?

Forgetting all about the Gummi Block incident with Yuffie, he rushed out to see if he could locate Sora and get some answers.

He darted around from alley to alley, sometimes nearly running over other people who just happened to be in his path. In fact, he looked quite strange in general, dashing all over to the place for no reason obvious to the usual spectator.

But this process did reap results, as he did finally manage to find the Keyblade Master once more.

Sora noticed him soon after his footsteps could be heard in the alley. He cowered against the wall, bringing his knees to his chest.

"Look, I ain't gonna hurt ya," Cid tried to explain. "I just want to know what the hell happened to ya."

"Go away...' Sora growled.

"Eh?" Cid mumbled. "Look, I just pour this over your wounds..." He pulled out a Hi-Potion. "And then..."

And then Sora teleported away again before he could say another word.

"Dammit," he hissed. "Why's he scared of me? I thought I made it clear that we were friends a while ago...like, say, about half a year ago?" He sighed, then went back to hunting for the Keyblade Master.

As he searched, something about Sora's wounds bothered him. They were mostly deep cuts, with some bruises here and there. Was it from a Soldier? No, that wasn't it. These weren't claw marks, they were something different. Something caused by a weapon of some sort. But these wounds were very distinct, so it couldn't have been just some random sword or knife...

Then from the corner of his eye he saw Sora, once again sitting down at the end of an alley. He started to turn towards him, but as soon as he set foot in the alley he disappeared once again.

Now this was starting to get really annoying. He was still very concerned for Sora, but this game of hide and seek was driving him nuts, on top of trying to identify the wounds. He had seen them so many times before, but where? Damn it...where was it where was it where was it?

He soon spotted Sora yet again.

"Hey wai-"

But Sora was already gone.

He stomped out his cigarette in frustration. Damn it, why wouldn't he trust him? It wasn't like he was going to hurt him.

This wasn't working. Maybe he should go fetch Ri- 

Then he remembered.

Those were **Keyblade** wounds.

Which meant that he and Riku...

So that's why he couldn't get anywhere near him. If The Master of Light tried to slaughter him, he wouldn't be very trusting either. But why?

_"Leon and Donald were fighting each other."_

Did they know? Were they fighting over something related to this?

He stomped off to try to find some answers.

_I hope that first part with Donald made sense. That one event has always been the one that's really bothered me, unlike most people, who obsess over the part where Sora stabs himself and turns himself into a Heartless. And I hope you find Cid's part to be good as well_

_Cya!_


	4. The Doubt Assembles

_Well, here we go. Another review, another chapter. Things are starting to really heat up now._

_Disclaimer: No, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. How many times do I have to tell that to you peoples! _

**Phase 5: Trying to Look for the Truth  
**  
Aerith was staring out the window of the group's headquarters of sorts. It wasn't much, just some random abandoned building they'd moved into recently, but it had plenty of rooms and a couple of floors, so it worked just fine. Also to its advantage was the fact that it was somewhat isolated from most of the other houses and stores, good for discussing matters in private.

Nothing in particular was going through her mind at the moment. She was just relaxing and enjoying the view she had from here, admiring what few stars still stood in the ever-darkening sky.

Cloud was nearby, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his wings somewhat spread out. He looked like he was about ready to fall asleep. "So where's Riku at anyway?" he mumbled.

"Oh, he's resting in the hotel," Aerith answered, looking back at Cloud. 'Been out cold for a couple of hours." Now that the she could see his wings a bit better than before, she noticed that the edges of the dragon wings were outlined thinly with white, something that wasn't there prior to his training travels. "Why do you ask?"

"I dunno,' Cloud replied. "Just thought he was acting kinda strange earlier."

"Yes, I noticed that too," Aerith responded, turning back to the window. "He's been pushing himself pretty hard lately. Some rest and he should be fine." Though in the back of her mind, something bothered her about all this. But Cloud had finally returned, and she didn't feel it was necessary to stress him out right now.

"I guess," Cloud remarked, leaning his head against the wall to look at the ceiling for some odd reason.

Then Aerith spotted a small figure running to them down below. Once the figure got closer, she recognized him.

Cloud seemed to sense the other's presence without the need of sight. "Who is it?" he questioned, his eyes narrowing as he pushed himself off the wall and walked over.

"Cid," answered Aerith, in a puzzled tone. 

The Gummi Ship Maker soon reached the building and rushed up the stairs. When he arrived on the second floor, it was easy for both to see that he seemed rather pissed off.

"Where's that damn Riku!" he barked, scanning the room for any sign of the silver-haired teen.

Aerith and Cloud gave him a surprised stare. Very rarely were the words _damn_ and _Riku_ used in the same sentence nowadays.

"Well, that damn Riku is sleeping in the hotel," Cloud explained. "And I wouldn't recommend waking him up since he was in a quite foul mood earlier."

"Nah shit," Cid responded. "Like I didn't guess that."

This only puzzled them more. "But he was already sleeping by the time you got here."

"Well, ya see he and Sora got into a bad fight earlier," Cid began.

"Hold on, a fight as in they yelled at each other or a fight as in they beat each other up?" asked Cloud.

"A fight where they were trying to friggin' _kill_ each other!" Cid exclaimed.

"When was this!" asked Aerith.

"I dunno, not too long ago," Cid replied. "Sora still has the wounds."

"And where's Sora?" Cloud questioned. For some reason his gaze was not on the others but somewhere at the ceiling.

'Somewhere in the second district," Cid replied. "Try to go a few feet of 'im and he goes poof."

"Poof?"

"Yeah, he learned to teleport somewhere," Cid said quickly. "But the point is Riku and Sora beat the crap outta each other for some reason, and I wanna know why!"

"Are you sure it was Riku?" another asked.

All but Cloud shot their gaze up to the ceiling, where Yuffie hung upside down.

"And just how long have you been here?" asked Cid.

"For about the whole time," Cloud replied for her.

Yuffie nearly came crashing down. "Ya mean ya knew I was here all along!"

"Yeah, pretty much," Cloud answered coolly.

"Man..." Yuffie moaned.

Cloud averted his gaze back to Cid. "How serious were his wounds?" 

"I'd say pretty damn serious," Cid responded. "I dunno why Riku-"

"Are you sure it was Riku?" Yuffie repeated.

Cid glanced back up at her. "Well, the majority of the wounds were caused by a Keyblade, so I can't think of anyone else who could've done it."

'Are you sure they were Keyblade wounds?" she questioned.

"Well, yeah, I-"

"Are you sure they weren't Gunblade wounds?" she interrupted

"Eh!" Cid exclaimed.

Everyone else's attention was turned to Yuffie as well.

"What? You think Leon attacked him?" Cloud asked, his eyes narrowing. 

"Well, by the way he was talking earlier I'd think so," Yuffie replied.

"What kind of talk?" Aerith asked.

"Like saying that Sora was bad and we needed to kill him and stuff," Yuffie explained.

"HE WHAT!" Cid yelled.

"But Donald didn't like that so they kinda ended up trying to kill each other," Yuffie added.

"So _that_ was what that was about," Cloud growled. "Did he happen to mention _why_ he wanted Sora dead?"

"Only something 'bout his destiny," Yuffie responded.

"What about it?" Aerith questioned.

"I dunno, he was kinda cryptic about it," Yuffie answered. "But he said something like _But look what else destiny has in store for him_ or something." She tried to sound real manly and deep when she quoted him. The attempt was futile.

"How 'bout we go find this damn Leon and force him to fess up!" Cid hissed. 

"Sounds like a plan to me," Cloud agreed.

"Oh yeah, there was something else too," Yuffie quickly said.

'What is it?" Aerith asked, hoping she could somehow get the guys here to keep their sanity.

"When I was asking him about it later, he said something like _This Master of Darkness is gonna tear this alliance apart._" Once again, she attempted to sound like Leon, though not too convincingly.

"Well, I'm gonna go find him and drag him here," Cid growled as he stomped down the stairs.

"Me too," Cloud added as he followed, only slightly less angry.

"Fine," Aerith gave in. "But just make sure to bring him back alive, got that?"

"Yeah, he'd be kinda hard to question if he's dead,' Yuffie chimed in.

"Don't worry, we're not that stupid," Cloud reassured as he stepped outside the headquarters to begin the hunt.

**Phase 6: His Majesty Comes**

A rather short figure pushed away the towering doors of Traverse Town. He wore a silken white robe, the hood up over his head. Despite this, two quite round ears were still apparent to the average onlooker. The robe dragged on the impure streets, but he didn't seem to either notice or care.

Coming not far behind was a much taller being. This one bore a shield of silver and knight's armor. Long ears hung down from the helmet, and his dog face was clearly visible since the faceguard was up. 

"Ayuck, good ol' Traverse Town!" the tall one exclaimed, leaping for joy despite all the noise he made.

"Goofy!" the other scolded in an odd voice, the light now able to show off his rodent face.

"Sorry, your majesty,' Goofy apologized, calming down.

The other chuckled. "It's okay. Now c'mon, let's get something to eat."

As the duo began to travel through the 1st district, they noticed a familiar face stomping his way towards the 2nd district.

"Hey, what's going on?' the shorter one asked Cid.

"Oh, you're back King Mickey,' Cid replied. "And I'm going off to get some damn answers from that damn Leon."

"Gawrsh, what happened?' asked Goofy, looking worried.

Cid sighed. "Look, it's best if you ask Aerith about this damn mess. She's at the usual place." And without uttering another word he stormed into the 2nd District, slamming the door in their faces.

"Hmm..." Mickey mumbled. "That doesn't sound like such a bad idea." 

--------

Mickey and Goofy had just climbed the stairs when they spotted Aerith and Yuffie nearby.

"Oh, welcome back, your majesty,' Aerith spoke, bowing her head down a little.

"Yeah, welcome back,' Yuffie echoed. "Too bad you picked such a lousy time to show up. Then again, maybe it was the perfect time..."

"Can you tell us what's going on here?' Mickey asked.

"Can't say I'm too sure myself," Aerith responded. "But what we do know is that Riku and Sora got into a fight recently. A bad one."

"How come, ayuck?" Goofy asked.

"We don't know," Aerith replied. "But Sora was quite seriously injured in the brawl, it seems."

"Oh no, Sora's hurt!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Yeah," Aerith replied. "But for some reason he won't let anyone get near him, so we think that this was more than just some stupid little squabble that ended up going a little too far."

"And then there's Leon," Yuffie chimed in.

"What about him?" Mickey questioned.

"Well...he don't like Sora anymore," Yuffie said. She was once again hanging upside down from the ceiling. 

"We've never been real good buddies with him ayuck," Goofy answered.

'Uh...that's not quite what I meant," Yuffie began. "I'm talking about that Leon wants to downright kill him kinda thing."

"WHAT!" Mickey and Goofy exclaimed. "Why!"

"We dunno," Yuffie admitted. "That's why Cloud and Cid are out looking for him. He kinda needs an explanation for that."

"He certainly does," Mickey agreed.

"But ya see, he was talking to Donald about that, and Donald didn't take it too well," Yuffie added. "So they ended up trying to kill each other in the streets."

"You mean Donald's caught up in his mess!" Mickey exclaimed.

"It looks that way," Aerith spoke.

"We'll go find him," Mickey offered. "He's not gonna hide anything from me."

"That sounds like a good idea,' Aerith agreed.

And with that the king and his knight left the base.

Mickey stomped around town, but not just in outrage to what he had just heard.

"Can't believe this," he muttered, just enough for Goofy to hear. "We got the Master of Darkness to worry about and what do they do? They decide to quarrel among themselves." His grumblings got so low that not even his knight could hear him anymore.

"Gwarsh, but this isn't like them at all,' Goofy replied, looking worried. 'Especially not Riku and Sora. Why would they do that to each other?"

"Sigh...I dunno, Goofy, I just hope the enemy doesn't pounce on us while we're all divided like this," Mickey answered, still seeming a bit angry.

"Don't worry, your majesty," Goofy reassured. 'It'll all work out."

"I sure hope so,' Mickey responded, a bit of worry in his voice.

Just then a figure in a cape soaked in the hue of blackened cherry passed by. The cloak was newly made, as it had not yet been wearied by travel. The bearer of the garment was none other than Vincent Valentine himself, and he seemed greatly displeased. He eyed his shadowed surroundings warily, searching for a certain prey to hunt. He even emitted a low growl as he sniffed the air silently.

"What is it?' Mickey asked.

"Darkness," he hissed. He leapt onto a nearby roof and rushed off, showing off his not-so-human prowess. 

"Garwsh, what do you think he's after?" asked Goofy.

"I dunno," Mickey replied. "Probably some large group of Heartless, if I know him."

Suddenly Donald was seen dashing out of the alley, skidding to a stop then rushing forward again.

"Donald!" Goofy and Mickey exclaimed, chasing after him.

Donald noticed their pursuit and stopped. "Y-your Majesty!"

"Donald what's going on!" Mickey asked, hoping for a clear answer this time. 

"Riku attacked Sora cause of some stupid trick!" Donald yelled. "And now he's really hurt and Leon's looking to finish him off."

"Why?" Goofy questioned. 

"BECAUSE HE WAS FRAMED!" Donald hissed back, jumping up and down.

"For what?' Mickey asked. "And by who?"

"THE MASTER OF DARKNESS!" Donald shouted back. "WHO ELSE?"

"Where's Sora?" Goofy asked, now really concerned.

"I'm right here," a quiet voice spoke as the Keyblade Master slowly stepped out of the alley's shadows.

_Heh, another cliffy. Aren't I evil? XP_

_Please R+R_

_Writing as Goofy is hard… _


	5. Tides of Different Colors

_Two chapters in one day. WOOT!_

_Disclaimers: Fools. I own not Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I would rule the universe…muwahahahaha…(cough)_

**Phase 7: Sunbeam Painted Black  
**  
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed, running over to him.

Sora didn't take too much note of Goofy, and instead focused his attention on Donald. "You're...glad to see me?"

"Of course!" Donald replied.

"Why wouldn't we, ayhuck," Goofy added.

Donald looked over to Goofy, then to Sora, and rubbed his head, laughing sheepishly. "Well...I was fooled by the trick for a while, too," he admitted. "But only for a little while!"

To prove his point, he began to cast healing spells on Sora rapidly.

"So...you don't..."

"NO I DON'T HATE YOU!" Donald finished for him. 'I PROMISED WE'D ALWAYS BE FRIENDS, AND I MEANT IT!"

Sora couldn't help but crack a smile.

Donald grinned back. "But could you give me a little warning next time?"

"Uh...okay,' Sora replied.

"But what happened?" Mickey asked, get quite tired of asking this one question over and over again.

Sora took a deep breath. "Well..."

Sora led the group into a small, deserted house, and made sure to shut the door tight. It was there that he told them everything. The discovery, the denial, the other villains that had hoped to follow him, the luring of Riku, the fight...and his fate.

"But…then it's not a trick?" Donald questioned.

Sora sadly shook his head. "Are you…"

"Of course not!" Donald barked.

The Keyblade Master looked surprised.

"But Sora," Goofy spoke after the lengthy tale was weaved, "You're not evil."

"We don't care if you're the Master of Darkness!" Donald barked. "You're our friend, and we know you're not evil. So no more of this 'Are we still friends?' stuff, got it!

Sora gave him a slightly startled look and grinned a little. "Gotcha." 

"We need to tell the others about this," Mickey stated.

Sora winced at the idea. "I know...but, they're...not as forgiving as you guys are..."

"Did that Leon attack you!" Donald barked.

"No..." Sora began. "But I could tell by the look on his face..."

"Aw, phooey, don't worry about him," Donald reassured. "If he even thinks of laying a hand on you, I'm gonna roast him, and gonna freeze him, and then I'm gonna beat the-"

"Donald..." Mickey growled.

He calmed down. "Eheheheheheh, sorry Your Majesty...'

But lurking just outside in the deepest shadows of the house that were cast by the dim streetlights, was a figure in a cloak of blackened cherry...and he had heard every word that had been said.

**Phase 8: Swirling Light**

Vincent quickly leapt up to the roof of the building, gazing down to witness the figures leave soon after. The stench that cloaked Sora was appalling. He almost wanted to cover his nose, the darkness was so strong. He glared down at the gang from his perch.

He was disgusted with The King and his subjects, choosing darkness over light after all their preaching. They chose to follow Sora even though they now possessed the truth.

Sora...of all people it was Sora. That seemingly innocent Keyblade Master was in fact the one singled out by fate to command the blackness, the Master of Darkness himself. He had been lurking among all of them all this time, eavesdropping on their plans they had so carefully crafted. And none, not even himself, had suspected a thing.

Sure, he had caught of whiff of Darkness from him here and there, but nothing that seemed to be out of the ordinary. After all, there is no such thing as a pure heart.

But now...the darkness overflowed from his being. How he could've possibly have failed to notice this until now astonished him. How he wanted to bounce down upon this corrupted soul and end this here and now.

But he knew it would never be that easy. This was the Master of Darkness he was talking about here. The chance of him successfully landed his attack, or even of it being effective at all, was right next to the chance of Mickey becoming a human. To charge mindlessly into battle with the ruler of the dark and some of his accomplices was nothing short of foolish.

The others had to know about this. Now. And he couldn't tell them if he was dead.

He jumped away and took his usual route of rooftops to go find the others.

As Vincent leapt from building to building, he tried to think of who he should tell first. Aerith? That would take quite a lot of convincing. Yuffie? Like she would take him seriously. Cid? He could imagine all the foulness that would erupt from his mouth. Cloud? That wouldn't be so bad.

But first he had to seek out Riku. He was the key to distilling the darkness once and for all. In fact, why wasn't he already out here? No doubt that he could sense Sora's presence.

He searched the crisp air for his scent. It seemed to be coming from the hotel not far away. He altered his course to go meet with him.

He arrived on the balcony right outside the room, the cloak spreading out in all directions as he landed, almost like a midnight flower blooming. Inside the room was Riku, lying on the bed near the balcony window. He wasn't slumbering peacefully; instead, his restless eyes turned to Vincent's location.

"What are you doing here?' he growled in a somewhat irritated tone.

"You're well aware of who lurks in these streets,' Vincent replied, remaining in his landing position.

Riku averted his gaze back up to the ceiling. "Yeah."

"Why aren't you going after him?" he asked.

"Look, I doubt Sora's going to try anything," Riku explained. "I don't feel like fighting right now, and I doubt he does either."

"So you're going to just let him run around and do as he pleases?" Vincent questioned.

"If he does try to do something stupid, then I'll deal with him," Riku responded. "But right now we're having a temporary ceasefire."

"So you're going to wait until he's back at full strength?" Vincent growled.

"I'm going to need to be in top condition if I'm going to defeat him," he replied. "That's the main reason I'm not fighting him now."

"Is it?" Vincent replied. 

Silence.

"You may have been friends with him," Vincent continued. "But that doesn't matter now. He's not the Sora you know anymore, and he never will be."

Riku turned over. 'That's what everyone else said about me back then."

"This is different,' Vincent stated. "You recovered because you were not destined for the darkness. He is."

_We'll...we'll always be friends, right?_

"He...he didn't act evil, though..." Riku said.

"That was most likely only on the surface," Vincent told him. "Either that or the darkness will soon consume what's left of his heart."

More silence.

"There is another thing you should know," Vincent added. "The King and his subjects have chosen to follow Sora into darkness."

Riku sat up. "What!"

"You will most likely have to fight them not far into the future, along with Sora," Vincent explained. "If you wait much longer, you won't have any allies left to fight with you."

Riku remained quiet once more.

"They will either pursue Sora into the dark..."

"...Or be slaughtered by his Keyblade."

Riku pushed himself out of the bed, and walked onto the balcony. With a swirl of light, absolutely white wings were reborn on his back.

"Let's go."

_Well, hope you like. R+R _

_Cya!_


	6. Confrontation on Splitting Ground

_Beh…tired…I'll just get to the point…_

_Disclaimer: If I owned KH, BHK's name would not be Roxas…_

Leon leered sharply at Cid. The two of them were in one of 2nd District's numerous alleys, filled with discarded shadows and filth. Leon was against the wall, his Gunblade perched on his shoulder like a wary crow. Cid was posed in the middle of the slim path, blocking the main entrance and exit like a guard of a prison. His spear was drawn and ready to skewer anything or anyone at any moment.

The Gunblader's eyes narrowed, crinkling the thin scar across his face. "What do you want?"

The Gummiship maker spat out his cigarette and stomped it out furiously. "You know damn well what I want! Answers!"

"About what?" Leon growled back, knowing quite well what answer would be.

"Why do you want to kill him?" Cid hissed, drawing nearer.

Leon gave him an icy stare.

"Why do you want to kill Sora?" he repeated, louder this time.

After another silence, Leon spoke up. "Because he's a threat to us all."

"Whaddya talking about?" Cid snarled.

"Either we kill him," Leon began, "Or he'll kill us."

Cid couldn't help but be taken aback by this comment. "And just what makes you think he'd do that?"

Leon gazed at him with another cold stare. "You'd just have to see for yourself."

"Well, evil or not, you'd had some nerve to go tell one of his guardians that you were gonna kill him," Cid responded.

"Donald knew, he was with me," Leon replied. "He was just too damn stubborn to admit it."

"Just what makes Sora so damn evil all of a sudden?" Cid questioned.

Suddenly the wind howled as the Master of Light past overhead, his luminance casting a brief glow on whatever happened to be around him. Not too far behind was a figure in a cloak of blackened cherry, pursuing the Master of Light from rooftop to rooftop.

Midway through one jump, a mass of darkened blue fog shrouded him, making him appear like a streaming comet as he landed on the next rooftop just across from Leon's and Cid's location. When the air carried the mist away, it wasn't Vincent the Human who stood there, but Vincent the Beast. 

He bore the head of a wolf and the overbearing rib cage of a cheetah. A long, whip like tail just went over the building's edge. Red eyes beamed from the pale purple fur that was worn all over his body. With a screeching howl, he bounded on all fours after Riku once again, only this time at a much faster pace.

Leon reset his eyes on Cid. "You want to know why? Come with us then." 

And with that he did several wall jumps to arrive on the roof to pursue the others.

**Phase 9: Coming of the Dawn**

Sora's head whipped around to look behind him. He saw nothing, but he knew what was coming. Or, more accurately, who.

"Gawrsh, what is it Sora?" Goofy asked, as the others stopped as well to wait for Sora's reply.

"You guys should get outta here," Sora advised. "He'll be here soon."

All of them knew exactly who Sora was talking about.

"No way!" Donald protested, swinging his staff around. "I ain't gonna let him kill you!"

"And just what makes you think you stand a chance against Riku?" Sora quizzed him.

"Well..." Donald trailed off. "Well I can still heal you!"

Goofy and Mickey showed no interest in leaving either.

After a brief quiet from Sora, he spoke once again, saying "Allright, you can come."

Shadows spun around Sora, with some stray black sparks striking random objects here and there, usually destroying them. The darkness attached itself to his back, forming those onyx seraph wings. 

Donald jumped about five feet into the air. "I TOLD YOU TO WARN ME ABOUT THAT!" Goofy and Mickey also seemed to be taken aback.

The Master of Darkness gazed back on them with his stark golden eyes. "Sorry bout that. Meet me up at the top of the clock tower."

And with that he spread out his wings and shot up to his planned destination. The preferred location to meet the Master of Light once more.

"So he's spread his wings," Riku mumbled to no one in particular as he rushed over all the houses beneath him. The wind that was created below carried off anything from dirtied newspapers to stray cats not having quite enough weight to keep their paws on the ground as the fierce airstream charged through. He gazed up at the sky. It was a moonless night, with only the few stars above to provide natural light for the path for others to follow.

He heard an angry snarl close by. Looking down, he saw a pale purple beast bounding from rooftop to rooftop below. It laid its crimson eyes on Riku and let out a series of barks, howls, and growls, as if it expected Riku to automatically understand.

Riku only gave a confident nod to Vincent, unable to quite understand what he was trying to tell him. Even if he was the Master of Light, that didn't help him out any more with understand languages other than human.

"Hey!" someone called out from below.

Riku glimpsed behind him to see Leon dashing after him, his sword more than ready to taste blood. Not too far behind him was Cid.

"You ready?" asked Riku.

"I've been ready,' Leon answered coolly.

"CAN SOMEBODY JUST TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" Cid yelled out in frustration.

His irritated plea was completely and utterly ignored.

The clock tower was rapidly approaching. He could sense it. He was there.

The Master of Light sped forward, leaving all others in the dust as he swiftly reached the face of the clock tower.

And there, waiting for him ever patiently upon the long hand of the clock, was The Master of Darkness himself; Sora, the Keyblade Master.

Sora lazily set his eyes on the one with colorless wings as he approached. He lifted himself into the air to go meet with him, summoning his tainted Keyblade to his grasp. "Couldn't have you at least waited until tomorrow?"

Riku shrugged. "Guess I could've, but oh well." He also called forth his Keyblade, the one of purity.

The Master of Light looked down below to see the King and his subjects ready to attack at Sora's signal. Donald especially seemed eager to take down anyone who dared oppose the Master of Darkness.

Not long after Riku had arrived, Vincent the beast climbed up onto the peak of the clock tower. Riding upon his back was none other than Leon. As soon as they laid foot on stable ground they glowered at their enemies, the ones not too long ago that were friends taken for granted.

Hurried steps were heard not far away, as Cid finally managed to reach the top of the tower. He came just in time to see the opponents line up on different sides; Leon and Vincent towards the outside, Mickey and his subjects near the bell of the tower.

"Ah, great, now what the hell is going on?" he said in a frustrated tone. "First you all want to kill Sora, now you want to kill the King and-'

Then he noticed Sora in all his blackened glory. The wings of the blackness, the predatory eyes of gold, the sinister aura that enshrouded his Keyblade, it could only mean one thing.

He had just laid his eyes upon the Master of Darkness.

For the longest time he just gawked at the Keyblade Master, not a single word uttered from his mouth. The cigarette had fallen to the cold floor without the least bit of notice on Cid's part.

Then it all came gushing out. Black curses of every kind, accompanied by complete disbelief. Whether all these dark condemning was targeted for Sora, the ones opposing him, fate itself, or some combination of the three none could tell. All the swears blurred together into a rowdy stream, dissolving into an undecipherable jumble of profanity. It seemed that he couldn't get enough cusses in per sentence.

After he finally had to stop to catch his breath, Leon gave him a cool stare. 

"Does that answer you question?"

Cid gazed at him. "...Yeah, pretty much."

"So, whose side are you on?' Riku asked in a somewhat unfriendly tone.

Cid gave no answer.

"Well?"

"Look, I ain't on nobody's damn side yet!" Cid burst out. "I'll be getting back to ya on that once all this crap registers in my brain!"

"Then leave us at peace," Leon replied. "While we settle matters here and now." He took a fighting position, as did all the others.

"I get the message," Cid growled as he bounded down to reach the ground floor as soon as possible. This wasn't going to be pretty...


	7. Thrashing Tempest

_Here you go! A nice, big, fat violent chapter for all of you. Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I would have to put up with fangirls constantly trying to kidnap the bishies _

**Phase 10: As Thunder Splits the Sky**

Donald was the first to make a move. He summoned forth a series of lightning bolts to rain down on Vincent and Leon.

The duo evaded them with ease, Leon dashing to the left and Vincent leaping to the right. Each planned to deal with different opponents.

The Gunblader fired a volley of fireballs, but Donald evaded and casted Aeroga on himself. Leon charged forward and took several swipes at Donald, quite few of which cut into the duck's skin. The wind of the Aeroga made its own cuts on Leon's arms and face. Then Donald struck with a with a Firega spell at point blank, frying both of them to some extent.

Vincent shot a light blast of sorts at Goofy and Mickey, which knocked them off their feet. Mickey swiftly jumped to his feet, the One Winged Angel in his grasp. He pointed the tip at Vincent as a sphere of flame formed at its tip. With quite a bit of recoil on Mickey's part, the fireball shot forth, the spell itself larger than the King. Vincent quickly leapt out of the way, letting the spell blow up the roof of a house below instead, and zipped towards the King. Goofy sprang right in front of Mickey and let his shield bear Vincent's claw marks. Then Mickey managed to jump around Goofy and nail Vincent in his side. The beast let out a terrible screech, but the wound soon began to heal up. Before either side could plan another move, a dark thunderbolt crashed into between them and blew them back.

The Masters of Light and Darkness clashed overhead, just beyond the clock tower. Every time their Keyblades grinded against one another, sparks of contrasting colors were thrown everywhere, blowing up whatever they might happen to land on. This varied from mailboxes below to allies not so far away. But they didn't think of their allies; they didn't have enough time to think of the others. If one got distracted for just a moment, then he might as well say farewell to the rest of his days.

Sora fired three Firega spells up at Riku. Like before, his were hued blackened maroon instead of just normal spells. Riku was assaulted by all of them at once, creating a deep black smoke all around him. But it was only a moment later when the colorless wings parted the dark cloud, and the Master of Light charged forward and rammed into Sora. Like before, large jolts of power erupted from the clash, and the two of them were thrown in reverse directions. Riku was tossed high into the sky, while Sora crashed into some barrels at the end of an alley below.

Dust obscured all below. Within a succeeding instant, the onyx wings chased away all the filth drifting in the air. Sora was just slightly off the ground when he heard a small, frightened squeal.

There in the corner of the alley was Yuffie. Instead of her usual nonchalant attitude, she cowered in the corner, her shrunken pupil locked onto Sora's true form. 

"Uh...heheheheheheheheheheheh..." she whimpered nervously. "Sorry for interrupting you." With that she hastily leapt over the wall and rushed away.

Sora had no time to try to sort this out, as moments later he found himself in another brutal ballet of the Keyblades.

A series of explosions grabbed the attention of Aerith as she wandered through the 1st District. Even though she was on the other side of town, she couldn't easily spot the smoke, sparks, and explosions occurring around the clock tower and beyond.

She didn't have to be told; she could sense it. The power of light was locked in combat with the power of darkness. Behind those powers were beings that represented nothing but themselves. Naturally, she picked up Riku's presence within the light, but to her surprise she also sensed someone familiar in the dark. Just who it was, though, she couldn't quite tell...

As she hurried to the scene, she bumped into Cid. He was walking away from the battle, of all things. She'd think he'd at least watch it.

Aerith's presence seemed to have not yet registered in Cid's mind. His eyes looked kinda dazed, uneasily glancing back at the explosive event occurring behind him.

"What's happening back there!" Aerith asked.

Cid snapped back into reality somewhat and finally noted Aerith's existence. "Oh, hey..."

"What's going on?" she repeated.

"Well, the Master of Light's fighting the Master of Darkness," he replied.

"Yes, I can tell that," she answered in a somewhat irritated voice. "But there's something else to this, you know that."

"Tis an ugly battle,' Cid responded. "I wouldn't recommend going to see it."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that? We knew this fight would be ugly from the start."

"Well..." Cid paused. "It's gonna be a lot uglier than I imagined."

Suddenly a panicked Yuffie fell on top of the Gummiship Builder. She immediately sprang back up and looked around frantically.

"What's your problem?" Cid growled. 

"Oh, it's...it's nothing...eheheheheheheheheheheh..."she replied nervously, not seeming fine at all.

"What happened?" Aerith asked.

"Uh...um...well...' Yuffie began. "The Master of Darkness...kinda almost fell on top of me."

"Is that it?" Aerith asked.

"Uh...you could say that..." Yuffie replied.

"And just for that you ran off?" Aerith growled. "Just for that you abandoned the battle and fled for your lives?"

They stood silent.

"Why aren't you helping Riku?" she hissed.

More quietness.

"Why aren't you helping him!" she barked.

Only the explosions in the background answered her.

**Phase 11: To Still the Storm**

Cloud snapped from his deep meditation as a jolt of dark energy crashed especially close to his location on top of Merlin's house. The magic around the house had been repelling attacks from both spectrums of power, but now its strength was draining away.

He sensed them immediately. Both the power themselves and the beings within them.

"Those damn fools," he growled, letting his wings fully reveal themselves. Now one could see that three stripes of white ran down each black wing. There was also an eye shaped spot, white on the outside and black on the inside that was on the edge of each wing. With a few flaps of these majestic wings he was off.

The Masters of Light and Darkness slammed into one another over and over, not caring of the consequences. The sparks born of these collisions dropped down to detonate over some random spot they were never intended for, such as houses and cars. The inhabitants rushed to their Gummi ships, stampeding as if they were wild bulls.

Down below, Donald had nearly gotten himself skewered by Leon's sword. His hat hadn't been so lucky, as it now slipped off the blade in two pieces. The blade itself had tasted blood, yet despite being splashed with quite a bit of the liquid ruby it still craved for more. It wanted to bathe in the crimson of a kill. It gleamed madly in its scarlet coat at the energy crackling above.

Donald began to cast a healing spell on himself when a volley of enchanted ammo flung itself at him. This assault knocked Donald over flat on his back. Leon leapt into the tainted air, his sword pointed straight down. The flames blazing nearby and the smoke that poured from their being gave his blade a harrowing gold hue, swirling with orange and red. 

Donald managed to roll out of the way before the blade made its way through his gut, letting it stab the stone ground instead. The blade let out a terrifying screeching sound as it was pulled out of the rock, the light reflecting off its surface glaring at Donald. 

The duck made his way up to a rooftop, summoning icicles on the opponent below. The blade bit the frozen shards to harmless dust. As the opponent came ever closer, Donald summoned forth a lightning bolt. Right before the blade could sink into his flesh, Donald unleashed the spell upon the foe. The electricity dazzled the blade as it shot through it, and the opponent crashed down onto the pavement below. Then the foe sprang up once again, the blade more than ready for another chance to kill.

Cloud soared not too far above the rooftops, his pale blue eyes seeming to give off a slight glow as he scanned the ground below. He had to stay wary as to avoid any bursts of energy that may come charging his way. Sometimes he dodged, other times he used an object as a shield, and still other times he guarded himself with his wings, letting them absorb the strayed attack's power.

Soon he spotted Aerith down below, seeming more than a little frustrated as she paced back and forth. The Gummiship maker and the rather short ninja girl stood nearby lost in whatever was going on in their minds. Cloud decided to dive down to see what was happening down there.

The huff of dusted air announced his presence as he arrived, sliding over Aerith and the others. They all focused their attention on the former mercenary.

"Cloud!" Aerith exclaimed, looking very flustered. "Oh, Cloud, the Master of Darkness...it's..."

"Sora?" Cloud replied flatly.

All of them seemed shocked. "Then you knew?"

"Not until about an hour ago," Cloud explained.

"So, ya gonna go off and kill him or are ya gonna go help him?" Cid asked.

"I'm not going to participate in this pointless squabble,' Cloud answered coolly. "Please don't tell me that you guys are planning to."

"Pointless squabble!" Cid snapped, stung by Cloud's cold tone "Our allies are trying to friggin kill each other out there!"

"That's why it's pointless,' Cloud responded. "There they go, each dead set on slaughtering the other, when in the end all they're doing is ripping apart what we stand for."

"And what do ya plan to do about it!" Cid growled.

Cloud set his steady gaze upon Cid. "Where's Kairi while all this mess is going on?"

They paused. Now that he mentioned it, they hadn't put a single thought to Kairi's well-being ever since this schism started to occur.

Cloud flapped his wings and started to rise into the air, sending waves of wind in all directions.

"Hey, where're you going?" Yuffie asked, speaking up for the first time since he had arrived.

"To go find her," Cloud replied. "After all, she's the only one who can straighten out this mess."

As waves of darkness and light crackled like fireworks in the sky, Kairi cowered behind a stack of boxes. She prayed that none of the sparks fall down would happen to drift to her hiding place. What was going on anyway? Why was everyone fighting? Where was Riku? Where was Sora?

One of her questions was answered as she saw the white wings clash with black ones. Feathers rained down from above, some shining with liquid scarlet. Sparks soon came down too, so Kairi was forced to flee her shelter before it got blown up.

She rushed mindlessly down the endless strings of alleys, not caring where she ended up as long as it was fairly safe. She bumped into random people along the way who had the same idea.  
_  
So that's what's going on. Riku is fighting the Master of Darkness. But then why are the others trying to kill each another? Shouldn't they be working together?_

Maybe the Master of Darkness possessed them. Yes, that's got to be it! Nothing would be too low for the commander of blackness. Taking over minds was probably routine for it. But how could she snap them out of it?

It had scared her, the look on the King's face. Mickey was usually had such kindly eyes, but there they were frozen and narrowed. Goofy also possessed a similar look, though his were not as hard. Most likely he was just following the King's example, the sheep he is...

Of course Vincent hadn't seemed so friendly either. His mouth slightly opened, a harsh growling hiss emitting from his throat, his eyes overcome by a crimson glow, on all fours with one clawed paw up in the air ready to strike...he was much scarier than Mickey, really. But Vincent was always scary, even when he was human. Mickey...Mickey was never supposed to be frightening...

They had stood there at a standstill, pausing to catch their breath. They were completely unaware of her presence not so far away, concealed by a flickering shadow.

Vincent lunged forward, teeth bared wide with the full intention of chomping into the King's arm. All that he was able to taste was the cold metal of Goofy's shield. With an annoyed snarl he leapt back. Goofy charged forward and bashed him on the head with his shield. He tried clawing Goofy's face, but the knight managed to bring his shield back up just in time.

Sensing the king's approaching him from behind, he swept the area around him with his lengthy tail, knocking both of them over. Then he slashed Mickey across the chest before he could react. Vincent was soon greeted with a Keyblade slicing across his face.

After letting out an angry roar let jumped back again. Half-blinded by blood, he randomly spat out energy blasts everywhere, hoping that at least one would hit their targets. All the dust scared up by the explosions obscured the scene.

She tried to call out for them to stop, but all that she got for a reply was an energy blast that exploded the house next to her. She had no choice but to run before the house would fall into the alley.

Kairi leaned against the wall to try to catch her breath. She still had no idea where she was, but most of the buildings were standing at least, even if most were on fire.

"Fine mess this is, huh?" a voice spoke.

Kairi turned to see Cloud emerge from the smoke.

"Cloud!" Kairi exclaimed.

"You allright?" he asked. He let his wings wrap around him as he walked over to her.

"Um...yeah," she responded. "But how come you're not fighting?"

"It's a pointless battle,' Cloud answered.

Kairi gave him a slight glare. "You shouldn't give up to the darkness! No matter what!"

Cloud returned her slightly icy gaze. "That's not the problem. If anything, it's opposite."

"Huh?" she asked.

"People are continuing to rage this war against the darkness, only they will achieve nothing," Cloud explained.

"But if we give up to the Master of Darkness, then-" Kairi began.

"The Master of Darkness is Sora," Cloud interrupted, in an oddly calm tone.

Kairi stared at Cloud like he had just hit her across the cheek. She murmured something, but Cloud was unable to hear it. She set her widened eyes on the ground.

"Wh-wha...' she whispered, not really talking to anyone. "N-no that can't-that can't be right. Not-Not Sora. That can't be right. it can't be...'

She soon found herself meeting with the pavement at her feet, followed by blackness. The last thing she was aware of was Cloud's cussing and hurried footsteps.

"Hey! Hey, you okay?" a voice echoed throughout the darkness.

Kairi stirred to find Cloud looking over her, kneeled down by her side. His wings shaded her from the glare caused by the attacks above.

"Uh...yeah...I guess..." Kairi replied, sitting up. What had happened anyway? Why'd she faint?

Then it all came rushing back to her. Sora. Sora was the Master of Darkness. But how could that be? Sora was so sweet and kind. He'd never fit the bill to command the shadows. No, that couldn't...

"Allright, let me get this out of the way," Cloud began. "Sora is the Master of Darkness, but he's _not_ evil."

Kairi snapped her head back in Cloud's direction.

"Evil and Darkness are two completely different forces,' Cloud explained. "They are independent of one another, contrary to what most people actually think. So just because Sora rules darkness does not mean he's the root of all evil, which would make it useless to kill him if we wanted to stop all evil."

Kairi nodded slowly, more relieved than anything else. "Yeah...yeah, that makes sense."

"But the problem is that quite a few haven't realized that yet,' he continued. "Those people are still trying to take Sora down. Others are readily defending Sora, willing to kill to keep him safe if that need be. That's why everyone's trying to slaughter each other. It's all because we had the wrong target in mind all this time, and some aren't willing to give up the plan."

"But if you knew it was wrong, why didn't you tell them before?" Kairi asked.

"I myself hadn't realized it until recently," Cloud admitted. "By the time I found out, the crevices were already widening."

"But what are we going to do then?" questioned Kairi.

"The plan's pretty simple,' Cloud replied. "I'm going to carry you up to the heart of the conflict."

It wasn't long until Kairi found herself in Cloud's arms, on the same level as the blasts of energy. It crackled all around them, turning the sky into erratic patches and white and black that were ever-shifting. Cloud zigzagged through the air to make sure he wasn't too easy a target. Whenever an attack drew too close, he paused briefly and shielded him and Kairi with his wings. The energy seemed to be soaked in by his wings, then Cloud would dart forward with a new burst of speed.

"But what makes you think I'll be able to help?" she asked. She had no powers of her own; how was she supposed to quell a war?

"Sora likes you. Riku likes you. Hopefully they'll have enough common sense to stop throwing spells around when you're right there," Cloud explained, finally gaining sight of the two winged ones diving around the air.

"And if it doesn't?" Kairi asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"Then I'll deal with them,' Cloud replied coolly, dodging another pale lightning bolt.

"What! But they'll obliterate you!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Nah, I can handle them,' Cloud assured. "I'm Twilight, after all."

"Huh?" Kairi responded, not quite sure just what he meant by that.

"The Master of Twilight," he clarified.

Kairi's eyes widened a bit. Master of Twilight? Well, I suppose it kinda made sense, with his wings being colored black and white and able to absorb both spectrums of power, but still...

She didn't have too much time to think it over, since she soon found herself in a barrel roll as Cloud evaded a stream of maroon-hued flames.

"Blizzaga!" she heard Riku yell, as a barrage of icicles occurred not far away. They seemed to be intended for a shaded target with darkened wings, but the figure darted away, letting the icicles freeze the building below instead.

As the silhouette surfaced from the shadows, Kairi could see the black jacket, the yellow and just a tad bit too large shoes, and the gravity-defying hair. There was no way around it: that was Sora. She cringed a little. She could see all the blood on them too.

He whipped around to face Riku, his stark yellow eyes glowing slightly against the blackened part of the sky behind him. The very intensity of his gaze sent chills down Kairi's spine.

"Firega!" he yelled, sending down more maroon flames down upon Riku. The Master of Light managed to evade them. The spell fried one side of the clock tower.

"Well, time to play peacemaker,' Cloud sighed as he darted over towards the combatants.


	8. Who's the Real Enemy?

_Ack! Sorry for such a long delay! Been busy and stuff, and the site was acting screwy for a bit, but it's all good now. Two or three chapters to go! Yay!_

_Disclaimer: …Do I really have to say it? (Sigh)…No, KH isn't mine. If it was, I'd be super rich and would get even richer come the end of March, when KH2 is supposed to come out. _

**Phase 12: The Flames Below**

Each readied their Keyblades, coated in blood, preparing to began another dance of the Keyblades.

"STOP IT!" Kairi shouted. "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

Both lowered their Keyblades suddenly, and snapped their heads in the direction of the scream. It took them little time to see who it was. 

"Kairi!" both exclaimed, letting their Keyblades dissolve for the time being. The blood that had been upon the Keyblades had no choice but to drop to the ground.

"What are you doing here!" Riku questioned, now becoming conscious of the utter mess he and Sora he become during the battle. "This...this isn't the best time..."

"I brought her here,' Cloud explained, still seeming a little antsy around the two combatants. "I wanted to make sure you idiots wouldn't go killing each other."

"Since when have you really cared about us?" Sora asked, crossing his arms. "Last time I checked, you just randomly drop in here and there whenever you felt like it."

"Well, this is a bit more important than that," Cloud growled back. "Mainly, if you continue fighting like this, there isn't going to be any Traverse Town left to fight over."

The Masters of Light and Darkness glanced down below. It seemed Traverse Town had seen better days. Random buildings had been blown up, others were burning up in fire's consuming hunger, still others were barely standing, holes and bloodstains littering their exterior.

"Damn..." Sora mumbled.

Even Kairi was shocked by the sheer amount of damage to the town. She could only see so much from ground level. But from here...it looked like the town had been ransacked by ruthless bandits.

"Why...why are you guys doing this?" Kairi asked.

Sora and Riku looked away.

"Well..." Riku began.

"You two made a promise to me, remember!" Kairi exclaimed. "That you'd never kill each other!"

"Yeah...we know..." Sora replied. "It's just..."

"Just what?" Kairi interrupted. "Just that you're darkness and he's light means you guys have to beat each other up now?"

"Well..." Sora began.

More explosions occurred below. The warriors rushed out of the created smoke, seeming to race each other. It was none other then Mickey and Vincent.

The coat Mickey bore upon him would never again be of pure white. Almost the entire robe had been bathed in scarlet, along with the Keyblade he wielded. Not far away was Goofy, also wearing quite a bit of ruby on his knightly clothing. The shield he carried had lost its original graceful beauty. The intricate decorations that had been upon it had now been torn off by claw marks or washed away by liquid ruby, leaving only a primitive piece of round metal painted red.

On another nearby rooftop was Vincent. The lavender fur was now matted with blood, but he couldn't have cared less as he stared at his opponents. His tail whipped around furiously, creating a loud cracking sound every time it struck on the rooftop. The vapor of his breath could be seen streaming out of his mouth as he laid in rest and wait.

Suddenly the beast sucked in a vast amount of air and summoned a whitened laser from within him. The attack cut into the roof Mickey and Goofy was standing on, two others beside it, and eventually was diverted to the sky as its power wavered. The collapsing of the target areas hid everything in smoke once again.

A series of fireballs zipped through another section of the 2nd District, exploding the building they happened to strike and leaving the remains to burn. As the fire's breath rose into the hazing sky, a silhouette could be seen erupting out of the mist of the inferno.

Donald Duck fired a Blizzaga spell the instant he materialized from the smoke, his wizard uniform now hanging onto him in bloodied tatters. The spell shot to an area that none above could see clearly. As the area suffered the deep frost of the attack, another one soon dashed out. The ice crystals that clung to his hair, clothes, and blade indicated that Leon had been struck. The frost soon became liquid once more, sliding off of him as red droplets.

He leapt forward and tried to skewer the water fowl, who jumped out of the way. Leon then took a quick swipe at his chest, leaving yet another slash across his bosom. Before he could land another strike, however, Donald hastily cast a Gravity spell on the wall a few feet from Leon. The Gunblader soon found himself being slammed into the side of the building. He managed to get himself up, but not without great effort.

The duo found themselves trying to capture their breath again, both leaning on their weapons. But it seemed that they couldn't quite catch it, and found themselves kneeling on the ground.

"That's it,' Sora spoke at last. "This has got to stop."

Sora dove down below into the streets of staggering buildings, forcing away the smoke choking the air with every mighty wing blast. His golden eyes seemed to emit a faint glow from the iris, matching wits with the glances of the flames that playfully danced upon the streets and sky. His wings reflected the unholy light of his surroundings, tainting them with red, yellows, and oranges. With an unbending will of majesty, he landed right in the crossroads of Donald and Leon's paths.

"Stop it!" he barked, fanning out his onyx wings. "This is going nowhere!"

Leon eyed him with the discrimination of a stranded cat, the light from the fire making them seem the hue of one. "Don't you have Riku to deal with?"

"That's over now,' Sora replied. "There's no more reason to be fighting like this."

"You bastard, you killed him didn't you!" Leon hissed, poising his Gunblade for a strike.

"No! I-" Sora began.

Donald leapt in front of the Master of Darkness and also held out his staff, his gaze more akin to a hawk than a duck. "Aeroga!" he yelled.

"Donald! No, this-' Sora tried to protest over the howling of the spell as it surrounding them in a secure orb of sharpened wind. The shrieks of the wind faded away, until only a quiet rushing was heard, as the spell became stable. "Look, Riku's not dead! We've come to a truce!"

"A truce?" Leon scoffed. "Between the Master of Light and the Master of Darkness? I find that highly unlikely."

"Hey, if you don't believe me, go ask him yourself!" Sora responded. "I can take you to him!"

"And why should I trust you?" Leon growled.

Sora sighed. He raised his Keyblade into the air and let a deep green mist creep out of it. It snaked around Leon and soothed some of his wounds. "Look, go to the top of the clocktower and wait. He'll meet you there."

He looked down at the red-streaked waterfowl just in front of him. Sora allowed Donald to be bathed in the darkened fog as well.

"Come with me,' Sora spoke, stretching his wings out a little and flapping them some. Within a few moments he was back into the black-and-white blotched sky. His wings stood out starkly against the white, while the black spots seemed to absorb the wings effortlessly.

With a little effort, Donald lifted himself off of the ground, without the help of feathered appendages. It was a phenomenon possible only by the power of pixie dust. Soon after he zipped off to join Sora the Keyblade Master, the Master of Darkness but not of Evil.

The wings of the Master of Light starkly contrasted with the shadowed surroundings lit only by flame. The darkened vapor produced by these raging lights hastily made way for him, as any remaining smoke slid over him. No amount of fire's breath, however, could dim his upstanding corona of white.

It was not long until his pale blue eyes focused in on their target. Somehow, Mickey, Goofy and Vincent were still fighting, though not with quite as much exuberance as before. Mickey was about ready to take a chunk of meat out of Vincent's side when he intervened. Before they were quite able to understand what had happened, the opponents found themselves on two reverse sides of the battered street. Standing right at the middle was Riku, his wings fully extended. He remained sideways, one side to look at Goofy and Mickey, the other side to keep an eye on Vincent.

Vincent let out a rambling of grunts, howls and barks at Riku. The Master of Light simply shook his head. "That's enough," he said in a quieted voice.

Mickey and Goofy still were in battle poses. "What are you doing back here so soon?" The King asked in a wary tone.

"Look, I think we've had plenty of bloodshed here for one day,' Riku continued. "Far too much..."

Mickey's eyes narrowed. "Where's Sora?"

"Relax, the idiot's still alive,' Riku assured. "And we've decided not to kill each other."

Riku noticed how a thick blue smoke enveloped Vincent for a few brief instants. When the mist was blown away, the human Vincent had replaced the position of the beast. His cloak of blackened cherry now had numerous patches of scarlet upon it, making it new no more.

He eyed him with a sharpened gaze. "Are you insane?" he hissed. With the return of his human body came the repossession of understandable language. "What deal could you possibly have made with him that won't swallow all of us in darkness?"

"This may seem quite amazing to you,' Riku began in a teasing tone. "But Sora isn't actually the root of all evil."

Vincent's eyes slimmed down to slits. "And what makes you think you can trust him? That isn't the Sora you knew from childhood, whether you'll accept that or not."

"Oh, but it is,' Riku replied. "Aside from some fancy new wings and the power over darkness, he's still the same goofball I always knew."

"Certainly you know better than to fall into the darkness again, don't you?" Vincent growled, some of his true form bleeding through as the irises of his eyes were dyed crimson.

He beckoned Vincent to come to him. "We'll discuss this in more detail at the clocktower."

He carried him off into the whiteness and blackness above, leaving Mickey and Goofy to be collected by the Master of Darkness.

They had had quite enough of the flames, smoke, and blood that now greedily consumed what remained of Traverse Town, the place of rebirth for so many lives that had been torn apart.

**Phase 13: Distinguishing the Line in the Blinding Vapor**

Leon gave Riku an unpleased look as he arrived on the clocktower. Most of the blood outfitted upon Leon had been shed by sweat, but his blade still remained dressed in dry crimson. Only a few spots were left untouched, and it seemed the only reason that it was so was to glare at the approaching figure in discontent. The deviled eyes of the fires below showed themselves on the impressionable surface of the sword.

Riku's light reflecting off the face of the innocent golden bell, which saw little but the Master of Light's corona now. It had done nothing, yet had received wounds from both sides. The upper part of the bell now bore a burn mark that melted its skin, causing the area to be indented and somewhat flimsy. The lower part that been struck with merciless frost, with now had made that area frozen and brittle. Lengthy cracks on all sides were slowing snaking up its way towards the top, threatening to tear the bell into useless fragments.

He landed not far from Leon with Vincent in tow. The one in the ruined cloak of blackened cherry also glared at him disapprovingly as he was set upon the ground. The Master of Light let a pale mist drift out of his Keyblade and swirl around Vincent, healing his wounds to some extent.

Vincent distanced himself from him, seeming ungrateful for the treatment.

"What were you thinking!" Leon growled, his arms crossed.

"I'm trying to end this war," Riku replied. "All that it's done is broken the trusts of the alliance and set them up to kill each other."

"So you are so desperate for peace that you would trust the darkness?" Vincent hissed.

Riku gave him a steady gaze. "Darkness isn't our true enemy."

"This alliance was formed to wipe out the darkness, Riku. You know that," Leon stated. "I'd think you of all people would understand why it is so important to exterminate the darkness."

"Wrong," Riku replied. "This alliance was created to destroy _evil_. Evil and Darkness aren't the same force."

"And what makes you so certain?" Vincent questioned. "Is it just because of your friend happens to be the very opponent you must take down?"

"It's not just that," Riku answered. "Look, if darkness was true evil, then why was it that I myself was able to wield it back at that time, after Ansem was defeated?' 

"That was merely because of the seal Maflicent cast on you," Vincent replied. "Any power you tried to use was transformed into darkness."

"But I was still able to use it for good,' Riku argued. "Doesn't that prove my point?"

"That was only because it was supposed to be light,' Leon responded.

Riku paced back and forth slowly, altering his path of sight back and forth from Leon to Vincent.

"Darkness is always perceived as the enemy," Riku began. "But that's really an unreliable way of judging sides. After, if evil and darkness are separate, then why not light and good as well?"

"What? Are you saying that there's evil light?" Leon asked, as skeptic as ever.

"I don't see why not,' Riku continued. "If darkness can be good, then there's no reason why light can't be bad."

"Are you saying you yourself could be evil?" Vincent growled.

"No, that's not what I meant," Riku answered, a bit flustered. "What I mean is just because something is aligned with light doesn't mean it's necessarily good. Light can illuminate and purify, but it can also burn and blind. And while Darkness can corrupt and mislead, it can also soothe wounds and rest the weary."

"Now you're just not making any sense," Leon hissed.

"Oh, really?" a familiar voice questioned from above.

They all averted their gaze to Cloud, gliding above them effortlessly. His wings were fanned out in all their black-and-white glory. He set himself down just before the injured bell.

"Believe it or not, light and darkness can exist at the same time, and in the same place," Cloud explained. "That's where Twilight comes from."

"And I suppose that's what you are?" Vincent asked.

"How did you ever guess?" Cloud replied, in a slightly teasing manner.

"I could tell by your scent,' Vincent replied. "It is equal in both light and darkness."

"Which proves my point,' Cloud answered. "That light and darkness don't necessarily wipe each other out when they are confined to one space."

"That is true,' Vincent answered. "But I doubt they would be mixed by their own choice."

Leon strolled over to Cloud. "But not so long ago you were just as much against the darkness as we are."

"But I didn't know I was the Master of Twilight either," Cloud replied. "That I found out during the training I underwent last month. And there was something else."

"And what was that?" Vincent quizzed.

"There's a separate entity for evil," Cloud responded.

Leon couldn't help but be surprised. "You mean there's-"

"A Master of Evil?" Cloud finished for him. "Yes."

_Yes, there is a Master of Evil. But who, or what, is it? That shall be answered in the coming chapter…can you guess the identity of the Master of Evil? Go ahead and try if you like. The correct guessers will get…background info on the origins of MOLAD._

_Cya! _


	9. None Other Than Thou

_Bleh, don't feel chatty. Let's just get straight to the point._

_Disclaimer:…I don't own KH, though I will own a copy of KH2 soon. Yay!_

**Chapter 14: None Other Than Thou**

As if to answer the call, the area around them began to tremble in fear. The sky above let out a screeching wail as something seemed to tear it apart. An energy unable to be seen by anyone combusted random buildings below. The allies quickly darted away to avoid being crushed by debris or this great force. The bell was soon shattered by a wayward blast, and fell to pieces upon the ground.

From the crack in the split sky he came, bearing six iridescent wings upon his back. In fact, the only way they could lay their eyes upon the wings was because of the spectrum of colors they shone. For all other reasons, they were invisible. They were a bit slimmer compared to the wings of the others, and when they were coordinated to beat so it appeared that they moved like a ocean wave.

His lengthy black trench coat flipped around in the high winds. His extensive, silver-plated hair was blown around fiercely by gales like a proud banner. A lengthy katana was strapped to his side, ready to be thrusted out at a moment's notice. The sharp blue eyes that he possessed taunted the opponents below.

For this was, in fact, Sephiroth.

Cloud's eyes were cut down to mere slits as he beholded the all-too familiar figure above. He immediately summoned the Ultima Weapon to his ready hands.

"See? _This_ is what we're supposed to be fighting, you morons!' Cloud announced.

"You know, you could've just said this earlier," Vincent replied, glaring up at the opponent.

Realizing that he was right, Cloud answered with a mere "Hmph..." and hastily cast Curaga spells on all of them, not stopping until each one was completely healed and battle-ready.

Sora soon arrived with his brigade in tow. Apparently they had already had recovered from their injuries, and were more than ready for this fight. Which made sense, as they had probably had spent most of their down time healing instead of bickering.

Cloud heard more shouts from below. A quick glance below confirmed that it was Cid, Yuffie, and Aerith yelling up at them.

Aerith...She couldn't be in this fight...not after what nearly happened last time...

Cloud dove down to take her to somewhere fairly safe, although he wasn't quite sure just where that would be at the moment. But it seemed Aerith anticipated his motive and moved closer towards Cid and Yuffie.

"I'm fighting too,' she stated flatly, and the look in her eyes let Cloud know that she wasn't planning on changing her mind anytime soon...

He sighed and raised himself back up to Sora's and Riku's level once more.

Both had their Keyblades in their grasps. Riku's was down by his side, while Sora's was perched on their shoulders.

Sora looked all around at his companions, relieved that they weren't trying to murder each other mindlessly like before. He let a grin creep on his face.

"So, you guys ready?"

Sephiroth was the one who instigated the battle.

Waving down to them as if to say hello, a ring of fireballs materialized around him. They orbited him for a bit, then streaked down to greet his opponents.

All scattered hastily to avoid being roasted by the flames, hoping the embers would end up arriving somewhere besides their current locations. The Master of Darkness shot up to the twisted heavens above, where Master of Evil resided. His plan was to welcome the silver-haired one with a Keyblade to the jaw. But Sephiroth saw this coming long beforehand, and swiped at Sora to keep him at bay. Sora managed to avoid being chopped in half, but it had been too late for some of the hairs on the top his head.

Sora backed up some, and fired an ocean-hued Blizzaga spell at him. Sephiroth drifted out of the way with ease, then dashed forward in an attempt to skewer him. Sora quickly jolted out of the way, then hit Sephiroth with a Firaga spell at point blank. Sora was blown back by the explosion, not quite in control. From the darkened smoke Sephiroth came. Before Sora's heart had a chance to beat, he sliced at Sora and left a long gash down his chest.

Then he found himself struck by a whitened Blizzaga spell from behind. He snapped his head around to finally take note of the Master of Light's presence.

"C'mon, did you really think you could do this on your own?" Riku teased.

"Maaaaaaaaybe," Sora answered, smirking.

Sora made sure to zip away from Sephiroth with haste. He had no interest in ending up with other wounds to match the one he already possessed, or to lose his wholeness period. He fired more Firega spells at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth lazily swatted them away, then turned to focus his attention on Riku. The Master of Light rushed in and prepared to cut into his left shoulder. Sephiroth blocked this attempt with his slim katana. White and shimmering sparks were thrown into the sky, only to drift down to the ruins of the town below.

Sora tried to slice into his opponent, but a single look from the iced blue eyes and Sora found himself slowing down, pausing for a brief instant, then sent spinning upwards.

Riku darted backwards and summoned a lightning bolt from the sky to crash down upon the Master of Evil. Sephiroth managed to avoid it and let it land somewhere down below instead. Then he slashed at the thing air, only to create a crescent of energy from nothing. The attack zipped through the sky and tackled Riku, pushing him quite far back. When he regained control of his flight, one could see that the blast had left its mark. Now a lengthy burn mark was upon his bosom, as well as a bit of his right leg.

A silvered lightning bolt dropped down upon Sephiroth, making his body crackle with energy. Not long after, the Master of Twilight erupted from the clouds, the outer ledges of his broadsword emitting a pale blue light. He zoomed in swiftly to Sephiroth's position, his blade ready for a rain of crimson soon to come.

But for the time being, his blade was blocked by Sephiroth's own blade, causing more sparks to come into being. Sephiroth teleported his way around Cloud, appearing behind him. He lifted his free hand, bringing to life a orb of flame. A stream of lighted heat possessing all colors shot forth from the orb and drenched Cloud in its power. The Master of Twilight now found himself with burns of all kinds upon him.

The orb twisted impossibly, then dissolved into pure fire. It loosely coiled around his arm, starting at the wrist and ending a little over the shoulder. It pulsed and twitched like a restless serpent. The Master of Evil gave his challengers a look that seemed to say, "Bring it on!"

Flame erupted from his hand again, only this time it was much more widespread. The other Masters hastily darted away from its path. The colored heat fell for a few moments, then suddenly curled upward. It tore into three equivalent pieces, each of which immediately began its mission of unforgiving pursuit.

Sora spun about in the air, erratically jerking this way and that in an attempt to distort the flame's sense of navigation. The shred of energy twisted and spiraled in response. Seeing as this was getting him nowhere, Sora stood his ground and fired a Blizzaga spell straight at it. The ice hit its mark, and for a few moments the wisp quivered and contracted, a ginger light pulsing at its center. Sora rushed forward and let his Keyblade divide the orb in two parts, causing the tongue of fire to sluggishly lose altitude and dissolve out of existence.

Riku took note of Sora's accomplishment and also fired a Blizzaga spell at the shred. However, the wisp evaded it and charged straight towards him, managing to roast him quite well. Now this flame was gone too, but not in the way he'd planned it to go. He quickly cast a Curaga spell upon himself.

Cloud had also sent Blizzaga spells to strike down the wisp that followed him, but it had managed to avoid them all. Cloud beat his wings furiously, slowing its ascent to him. When it was barely a foot away from him, he slashed at the tongue of flame, striking the weak point and making it lose its sense of anything.

The fiery spiral on Sephiroth's arm had faded, but he didn't look any less confident. He raised his hand up, then swiftly pulled it back down again. All the Masters noticed white spots shining all over them. They lifted their heads to see that part of the sky had become normal, with stars gleaming from the blackness. Then he realized that the power of the stars themselves was being focused on them.

A shower of whitened beams, cloaked in a fine mist that spiraled around them, came down. It was astonishing, how many there were. Before any of them had to chance to move, they found the light points upon them.

It was strange, for they didn't feel any pain when they were touched by the thinned rays. Instead their vision blurred as every memory they possessed came to them at once. Good, bad, lustful, innocent, it didn't matter. The threads of time seemed to be crisscrossed and tangled until they couldn't tell who was who, what was what, or when anything occurred. They couldn't keep their pasts straight, much less keep track of what was actually happening then and now. Their senses embroiled inside of times gone by, they didn't feel the explosion that hit them soon after.

Instead, they remained lost in time as they ended up crashing below.

_Well, one more chappy to go. This one may be a bit short, but the next should be longer than usual, so it evens out, I guess XP. _

_Cya!_


	10. It All Comes Down To This

_The final chappy is here! We made it!_

_Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own KH. Don't have room for all those Heartless here anyway._

**Phase 15: Interruption**

The first thing Sora did when he woke up was yelling some obscenity about Sephiroth and shoot a Firega spell straight up. It took him a few moments to realize that he'd made a nice big hole in the ceiling right above his bed. "Wha?..."

"Look who's finally up,' Cid stated as he walked into the room, seeming more jittery than usual. "Took ya long enough."

"Uh...what happened?" Sora asked dumbly.

"Oh, nothing much, just Sephiroth rampaging all over the place, planet half-destroyed, death, gore," Cid hissed. "Ya see, everything's just dandy here!"

Sora scanned his surroundings to see that the house they were in was about ready to give up on life. The walls were cracking and charred, the windows broken, the curtains all but shreds.

Yuffie hopped in and hugged Cid's arm. "Aww, don't mind ol' Cid. He's just hasn't had a cigarette for about three days."

"Damn right!" he growled. "Of all the places to blow up, he just _had_ to blow up the _one_ drugstore that had cigarettes.

"Three days...Hold on, how long have I been out!"

"Bout six,' Cid replied. 

"Six!" Sora exclaimed, springing out of bed. "The others! Where-"

"There all fine," Cid assured. "We've been waiting for you to snap outta whatever that was. Riku woke up on the fourth day, Cloud the fifth."

Sora blew a sigh of relief. "Where are they now?"

"You have a nice nap?" Riku teased as Sora entered the vast basement.

"I guess you could say that,' Sora replied, smiling. "You?"

"Well, I was out for over half a week, so I imagine so,' he answered.

A explosion rocked the basement, then died away.

"You're lucky, we've had to put up with this racket all week,' Cloud replied, looking at the ceiling as if he could see through it.

"Sora!" Kairi called out, dashing to him and hugging him with all her might.

"Hey Kairi!" Sora replied. He glanced at Riku over her shoulder. He could practically see his silvered hair begin to stand on end and turn a limish green.

He decided to hurriedly end the embrace before things got a wee out of hand.

"Uh, so anyway, what's the plan?"

**Phase 16: Final Fall**

"Well, the plan is that we're gonna go beat the crap outta him!" announced Cid, now riding in his Gummi Ship near Sora. "Oh and don't get hit by that fancy star thing again."

Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Donald, and Goofy also were encased in their Gummi Ship's protective shells. Vincent flew just below Cid's Gummi Ship, for now he had become the beast known as Chaos. Sora, Riku, and Cloud glided side by side. A special kind of communication chip inserted into their ears so they could hear the others that remained inside their ships.

"There he is!" Sora exclaimed, pointing to the long-maned one some distance away. "Firaga!"

The maroon-hued flame struck its target, giving birth to much smoke around Sephiroth. An instant later, he erupted from the smoke and attempted to skewer Sora. As Sora dodged, Riku managed to land his Keyblade in the Master of Evil's shoulder, causing shining scarlet to streak down his trench coat. In response, Sephiroth blew them back with an invisible force.

Cid fired his torpedoes, which speedily made their way to Sephiroth's location and made contact. Flames curled around his location as a black smoke hid him from sight. When the dark vapor was carried elsewhere, it was clear to see that Sephiroth has shielded himself using his wings. He drifted in the air, the shining wings fused to form a bubble around him.

With a little effort, the fusion was broken, and he lunged towards the group once more, now looking a bit irritated.

The Gummi Ships quickly dispersed across the sky, searching for different angles in which to strike him.

"Get 'im!" Cid exclaimed to all.

Yuffie's ship spat out brief bursts of shortened lasers spiraling towards him. Sephiroth swiftly recreated the bubble around himself to block the hailstorm of light. Cloud charged through the air and slashed at the bubble. Sephiroth was forced to revert his wings back to normal, and made sure a leave a lengthy gash across Cloud's chest in return.

While he had his focus on the Master of Twilight, Sephiroth found his back was being plummeted by lasers and ice spikes. Their origin was from Cid's ever-versatile Gummi Ship. They were soon accompanied by Leon's crimson flares and scrap metal.

Sephiroth quickly teleported to escape the barrage, leaving Riku to evade the mass of projectiles. He soon found himself out of the artificial tempest, but not without a few scratches and burns.

The creature that was once Vincent crashed down upon Sephiroth, digging his claws in. The Master of Evil gave him a quick zap to make him let go. When he lunged again, Sephiroth let his teeth chew on his blade instead. The monster snapped angrily upon the katana, seeming intent to shatter the sword.

Summoning a miniature sphere to his hand, it drenched the beast in it's strange inferno. Like before, the orb combusted, morphed into a string of fire, and casually coiled around his arm.

When Leon's ship crept behind him and begun its barrage of flame and sharpened bits of steel, Sephiroth simply let the coil melt into a tide of heat and eradicate all projectiles that dared to get too close. Soon the flame was torn into three fragments. One went after Leon, one went after Vincent, and one went after Sora.

Leon found himself twisting and darting throughout the sky, trying to outmaneuver the shred of heat that tailed him. But it was unable to follow long, as it was soon shot up by the green lasers of Aerith's ship.

Vincent also tried to escape the clutches of the flame. Cloud zipped to the scene to slice the wisp clean in half. Vincent hastily healed himself.

The Master of Darkness did not run. He simply waited somewhat impatiently for it to reach him, then chilled it with a close-range Blizzaga spell.

Then the warped skies parted way to reveal the stars once more. Sora and the others quickly took note. This was it. They had to get it right this time. If they failed this time, it was most likely that it wouldn't be ruins that would greet them when they woke up.

As the attack prepared itself, Sora muttered "This better work."

The three opposing Masters gathered near each other and cast Aeroga on themselves. Not that they honestly thought that was going to protect them from the attack. It was just a precautionary measure if Cid's plan didn't work.

Cid's war instrument was becoming primed for the plan even in that moment. The wings were widening, the thrusters were charging, the reflective liquid was engulfing the ship's exterior, making it seem that the night sky was chewing away at the ship. Soon not even the cockpit could be could be distinguished from the rest of the ship.

It was still visible, yes, but the mirrored surfaced made it hard to tell what part of the ship was which, or where it was going. It was far from perfect camouflage, but that wasn't the main point of the substance anyway.

He carefully steered to where the Masters were. He couldn't move too fast or else he'd risk breaking the plan. He wouldn't die, but the substance would be weakened, and no one wanted that.

The Masters took note of Cid's approach and made sure to try to keep the attention to themselves. Sora and Riku both summoned fireballs from the tip of their Keyblades, while Cloud shot lightning bolts at Sephiroth.

All the magic missiles were extinguished before they could get 10 feet of the Master of Evil. He just smirked down at them as the rays began to fall.

That was the moment.

The ship kicked into high gear and caught the beams from above. The substance, eager to do its true purpose, reflected the rays away from the allies and back and Sephiroth.

He saw them coming, but their rapid ascent was not to be avoided. He was struck, knocking him back ever slightly, and the attack began its work. His eyes were wide open, then began to cloud over, then becoming doused with sleep. Slowly he began his involuntary descent. 

The assault of light did take its toll upon the ship, however. Most of the substance had been burned off, with patches of the ship available to the naked eye. Some of the metal itself was melted, and the missile launcher looked like it was about to drop down with Sephiroth.

"Well, I'm outta here,' Cid announced, beginning his retreat. "Get im kids.'

Sora shot out a barrage of Firaga spells down upon Sephiroth. Almost all found their target with ease, as Sephiroth was far from alert. A storm of lasers trailed behind it, with lightning bolts and ice fragments pursuing after them. All slammed into their target, bringing all kinds of smoke into being.

The vapors swirled in place for a few moments, then were suddenly scared off. The Master of Evil had regained awareness, but didn't seem to be fully back into reality. He moved sluggishly up, his eyes not focused on anyone in particular.

Yuffie fired a ruby-hued missile at the silver-maned one. Sephiroth responded with a lazy slash at the air, bringing an energy slice into existence. The crescent beam collided with the missile, and both their paths ended at that spot. An enormous explosion resulted, blowing everyone back.

When he had regained control of his flight, Cloud let himself fall down to greet Sephiroth. His blade finally got to taste the wet crimson as it bit into Sephiroth's shoulder. It slid down his sleek coat, dripping down to the ground below. He did not yell, only grimace and set his angry eyes back on Cloud.

Riku came next, thrusting his Angel's Whisper into his arm. The Master of Evil was forced to let go of that katana he held so dear. He witnessed it fall, a shining star. He managed to break free of the Master of Light and Master of Twilight, and dove down to recapture it.

Then the Keyblade Master himself, the Master of Darkness known as Sora, had himself plummeting downward, Ultima Weapon pointing straight down. He descended more and more swiftly, the winds screaming louder and louder for him to stop, but he paid no heed. His eyes remained focused on his target, making vague adjustments as he was being rushed ever closer. His hair completely whipped back by the opposing streams of air, his eyes merely slits, it seemed like the moment would never come despite his ever-increasing speed.

But the moment did come, and before he even realized it, his Keyblade had skewered the heart of the Master of Evil.

A few faint moans and grunts were heard, as the liquid ruby flowed from both his back and front. Soon only quiet was heard; not even the winds had anything to say. Then, almost peacefully, the body slipped from the Keyblade. It fell down through the clouds, a mere broken shell.

Sora looked down at the bloody tip of his weapon. It was still oversoaked with the shining scarlet, the excess joining the descent with Sephiroth.

Then after the inevitable crunching sound was heard, he let his back slump and a sigh go free from his mouth.

**Phase 17: Picking Up the Fragments**

Hours had past, just how many hours they were not certain. After all, the clock had been all but obliterated in the chain of violence, as well as just about everything else.

It was odd, how relaxed they were in these ruins with splatters of red and black. True, they had managed to defeat the Master of Evil, but the damage was nothing to be dismissed. Street signs laid upon the broken roads, with neither light nor noise to accompany them. Feathers involuntarily cloaked in dry crimson were tossed about in the timid breeze. And resting upon the clocktower were the ones who started it all, and ended it all as well.

Sora, lying on a fallen clock hand, gazed down upon the destruction from the highest perch left standing. His blackened wings still clung to his back, but he neither noticed or cared.

"So, it's finally over," he spoke, breaking the mostly peaceless silence.

"Yeah,' Riku answered, staring up at the sky. It was finally back to normal, with only the deep blue showing off the stars. "Least for now.'

"Uh, I don't think he's gonna be coming back anytime soon,' Sora interjected.

That seemed quite true. Sora was the first one to set his eyes upon the body, and he was convinced that he wasn't going to be up and walking the next day. Or the next week. Or the next year.

"Who says it'll be him we'll face next time?' Riku replied.

"Whaddya mean?" Sora asked. "I mean, he was the root of all evil. So no one should be evil anymore, right?"

Riku sighed. "Since when are things ever that simple?"

Sora stayed quiet for a moment. "I dunno. Back at home?"

The Master of Light smirked. "True. But still...in my heart, it doesn't feel gone."

Sora turned his gaze to the sky as well. "But yeah...I know what you mean. Even though all evil should be gone, I still feel it with me.'

Then suddenly his face ballooned with a goofy grin. "But like you said, it's all over for now right?"

"Right,' Riku responded, chuckling a little.

More silence.

"...So, what do we do now?" Sora asked.

Riku averted his sight to the devastated town below.

"Well, we could always fix this place up."

Sora also set his eyes on what remained of Traverse Town. "Yeah, it is looking pretty bad, huh?"

Riku snorted. "Yeah, really. 'Specially that old bell."

The Traverse Town bell had lost its unity somewhere in the chaos, and now had become indistinguishable fragments that lay across the tower in disorder.

"Yeah..."The Master of Darkness agreed, looking upon the shards. "So why don't we fix it?"

"Right now?"

"Why not?"

Riku shrugged. "Whatever."

So the Masters and Light and Darkness began to gather up the pieces, seeing if they could make it just like it used to be.

_Well, there ya go! It's complete! _

_I hoped you enjoyed the story! There aren't any plans for a sequel , so don't ask. If I feel like making a sequel, I will. But there's already so much stuff I wanna write, and any KH story will most likely be based off of the upcoming KH2 game, it's unlikely, so don't hold your breath ._

_Well, Cya! _


End file.
